Arthur Knight wrote: >class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age? (It's worth >noting here that, aside from Richard Dyer's two books focussing >on stars, *Stars* and the underappreciated *Heavenly Bodies*, >there is considerable feminist work on stars, my current favorite >being Jackie Stacey's *Star Gazing*.) ... >For many film viewers (us), they are a big part of the mix >(i.e., meaning, value, quality, attraction, art, identity). As >scholars, I think we find this unnerving for a wide array of >reasons--performers are powerfully affective without being >clearly meaningful, the text has no end and isn't even much of a >text, etc.--but I don't think that means we should (or can) >avoid studying perfomers/stars... or the people (including us) >that are fascinated by them. SO bring on the studies..... Two recent anthologies attempt to bring together essential star studies (many of which continue Dyer's work): Christine Gledhill, ed., STARDOM: INDUSTRY OF DESIRE (London/NY: Routledge, 1991). Butler, Jeremy, ed., STAR TEXTS: IMAGE AND PERFORMANCE IN FILM AND TELEVISION (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1991). ---- Jeremy Butler mailto:[log in to unmask] SCREENsite: http://www.sa.ua.edu/SCREENsite/ Telecommunication & Film/University of Alabama/Tuscaloosa ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]