[Commlist] Call for Papers: 'Greek Stardom and Celebrity: Histories and Methods'

Call for Papers: Journal of Greek Media and Culture

Edited by Dr Olga Kourelou and Dr Lydia Papadimitriou

Special Issue: 'Greek Stardom and Celebrity: Histories and Methods'

View the full call here>>

https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-greek-media-culture#call-for-papers 
<https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-greek-media-culture#call-for-papers>

Since the publication of Richard Dyer’s Stars(1979), which initiated the 
beginning of a scholarly enquiry into film stardom, star studies have 
been constantly evolving and expanding. While most early work on stardom 
focused on issues of representation and the ideological significance of 
film stars, or their role in the industrialisation of Hollywood cinema, 
the field has expanded across film, TV and media studies; adopting new 
areas of investigation and methodological approaches, including work on 
the nature of fame and celebrity (Holmes and Redmond 2007; Holmes and 
Negra 2011), empirical audience research (Herzog and Gaines 1991; Stacey 
1994), acting and performance (Naremore 1988; Hollinger 2006; Baron 
2018), as well as national and transnational stars and stardoms 
(Vincendeau 2000; Landy 2010; Meeuf and Raphael 2013; Yu and Austin 
2017; Lawrence 2020).

Meanwhile, Greek film studies have been experiencing an exponential 
growth in both the Greek- and English-language academe. However, while 
popular Greek cinema has been reclaimed as a serious object of academic 
study for some time now, the phenomenon of stardom in Greece has not 
enjoyed a similar academic reappraisal, despite its acknowledged 
centrality in Greek cinema and beyond. It is primarily in connection 
with Old Greek Cinema (Kourelou 2020; Karalis 2015; Potamitis 2013; 
Kartalou 2011; Kyriacos 2009), genre (Papadimitriou 2009, 2004; 
Eleftheriotis 1995) and, to a lesser extent, acting (Lykourgioti 2017; 
Dimitriadis 2008; Kourelou 2008) that Greek film criticism has 
recognised the role of stardom. Beyond these contexts, there has been a 
considerable lack of critical engagement with the diachronic 
manifestation and development not only of stardom but also of celebrity.

This issue aims to lay the groundwork for a wide-ranging debate on the 
subject that will improve our understanding of stardom in Greece. The 
issue, however, does not seek to simply celebrate individual stars, 
unearth their biographies or elaborate on the types they embody. Rather, 
our concern is with exploring theoretical issues individual or groups of 
stars raise, the kinds of identities and meanings they personify, as 
well as the ways in which they negotiate the values and contradictions 
of their era. At the same time, we are not only interested in revealing 
the textual significance of stars in specific historical contexts, but 
also their political economy and discursive construction. Some of the 
lines of enquiry we would particularly like to pursue revolve around the 
following questions: how has stardom evolved historically in Greece? 
Does cinema still provide the ultimate confirmation of stardom, as 
Christine Gledhill (1991) claimed in relation to Hollywood stars more 
than three decades ago? How have media technologies (from TV and VHS to 
social media) impacted not only the way stars emerge, but also the way 
their fame has been conceptualised and their fans engage with them? How 
can we understand Greek stardom in nationally and culturally specific 
terms as well as through the way it intersects with other – dominant or 
peripheral – transnational contexts? What ideas about personhood do 
stars articulate, how do these change over time and how do they help 
audiences make sense of themselves and the (Greek) world?

In order to reveal the multitude of stardoms in Greek film, TV and 
media, we invite (but do not limit) proposals on the following topics:

  *

    Histories of stardom and celebrity

  *

    Stars and genre

  *

    Stars and film style

  *

    Stars, gender and sexuality

  *

    Stars, ethnicity and race

  *

    Stars and the nation

  *

    Star labour

  *

    Ageing

  *

    Acting and performance

  *

    The relationship between studios and stars, auteurs and stars

  *

    The interconnectivity between theatrical, film and/or TV stardom

  *

    Non-film stardom

  *

    Cult stardom

  *

    Reception and spectatorship: stardom and film criticism, the role of
    the audience (and different types of audiences) and how they make
    use of star images

Please send a title, 300 word abstract and a short biography to Dr Olga 
Kourelou ((kourelou.o /at/ unic.ac.cy) <mailto:(kourelou.o /at/ unic.ac.cy)>) and Dr 
Lydia Papadimitriou ((L.Papadimitriou /at/ ljmu.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(L.Papadimitriou /at/ ljmu.ac.uk)>) by15 May 2024.The final articles 
should be around 6000-8000 words, and submitted to the editors by1 
November 2024.

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