Celebrity Colonialism: Fame, Power and Representation in Colonial and Postcolonial Cultures
Editor: Robert Clarke
Date Of Publication: Nov 2009
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-1351-8
Isbn: 1-4438-1351-6
Celebrity Colonialism brings together studies on an array of personalities, movements and events from the colonial era to the present, and explores the intersection of discourses, formations and institutions that condition celebrity in colonial and postcolonial cultures. Across nineteen chapters, it examines the entanglements of fame and power fame in colonial and postcolonial settings. Each chapter demonstrates the sometimes highly ambivalent roles played by famous personalities as endorsements and apologists for, antagonists and challengers of, colonial, imperial and postcolonial institutions and practices. And each in their way provides an insight into the complex set of meanings implied by novel term “celebrity colonialism.” The contributions to this collection demonstrate that celebrity provides a powerful lens for examining the nexus of discourses, institutions and practices associated with the dynamics of appropriation, domination, resistance and reconciliation that characterize colonial and postcolonial cultural politics. Taken together the contributions to Celebrity Colonialism argue that the examination of celebrity promises to enrich our understanding of what colonialism was and, more significantly, what it has become.

Robert Clarke teaches literature in the School of English, Journalism, and European Languages at the University of Tasmania, Australia. He has previously lectured at the University of Queensland, Australia and Chuo University, Tokyo. In 2006 he completed his PhD thesis, “The Utopia of the Senses: White Travellers in Black Australia, 1980-2002.” He is the editor of “Travel and Celebrity Culture” (special issue Postcolonial Studies, 2009). He has published articles and reviews in international journals including Studies in Travel Writing, Journal of Australian Studies, Journeys: the International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing, Jouvert, M/C Review and Australian Literary Studies.

"In this engaging and highly original collection of essays, Robert Clarke and his contributors direct our attention to the relationship that has developed over the past century or more between the cult of celebrity and the ongoing efforts of the West to impose its own moral regime on the rest of the world. This volume is both a sophisticated analytical inquiry into this unlikely but important intersection of interests and, it must be said, a guilty pleasure to read."

- Professor Dane Kennedy, Elmer Louis Kayser Professor of History and International Affairs, Georgetown University

Author of The Highly Civilized Man: Richard Burton and the Victorian World

"Celebrity is one of colonialism's most potent, most prized commodities, and a point of confluence for the often obscure connections that exist between politics, ethics and entertainment. In tracing the entanglements of fame, representation and power in colonial and postcolonial societies, these essays edited by Robert Clarke make a signal contribution - at once theoretical and applied - to the emerging, interdisciplinary field of 'Celebrity Postcolonialism.'"

- Robert Dixon, Professor of Australian Literature, University of Sydney

Price Uk Gbp: 44.99
Price Us Usd: 67.99

Sample pdf (including Table of Contents)