FAVh040 Introduction to Star Studies and Celebrity Studies

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2022
Extent and Intensity
4/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Šárka Jelínek Gmiterková, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Šárka Jelínek Gmiterková, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Supplier department: Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Wed 8:00–11:40 C34, except Wed 4. 5. ; and Wed 4. 5. 8:00–9:40 C34
Prerequisites
There are none.
This course can be ideally combined with the workshop FAVp015: Star Wipe. Videographic Approaches to Star Studies.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
Course objectives
Film stars are, in accordance with its original meaning, bright objects, which shine in the darkness of the screening room. Their images provide fictional characters with looks, faces and bodies. Seeing our favourite star in a part using all the benefits of his or her strong actorly skills and performative assets is one of the strongest spectatorial pleasures. Stars are thus crucial for the works of cinema - if they embody certain type and its adjacent values, they can influence or even motivate the creation of a film project. Through their contracts and financial claims they can influence both production and postproduction stages. Stars are important as agents of promotion and publicity. Overall, they are a vital part of a film life cycle and their relevance reaches far beyond movie industry - towards other cultural and media industries, to the issues of identity and labour or they can articulate wider social ideas, ideals and aspirations.

In this course students will be introduced to star studies methodology, as well as its later offspring - celebrity studies. Individual lectures will present different topics connected to this methodological approach, as well as the evolution and forms of stardom in various historical periods, geo-political contexts and cinematic structures.
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course students will be able to:
- understand film stardom as an important cultural, social and ideological phenomenon
- understand the development of star systems from the early 20th century and recognize specific localized star systems
- describe and analyze individual (star) performance in the context of a particular film, genre or period
- identify and define research topics and/or areas
- apply star studies approach on a wide range of topics.
Syllabus
  • Defining stardom and areas of research
  • Richard Dyer and his paradigm
  • Historicizing stardom (I, II)
  • Stardom in the industrial context of film production
  • Celebrity
  • Stars as unstable symbols
  • Transmedia and transnational stardom
  • Star as actors and performers (I, II)
  • Stardom and fan reception (I, II).
Literature
    required literature
  • DYER, Richard (2003, 2nd edition): Heavenly bodies. Film stars and society. London: Routledge, 224 p.
  • DYER, Richard (1998, 2nd edition): Stars. London: BFI
  • MCDONALD, Paul. Hollywood stardom. First published. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, a John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication, 2013, viii, 342. ISBN 9781405179829. info
  • VINCENDEAU, Ginette. Stars and stardom in French cinema. 1st publ. London: Continuum, 2000, xii, 275. ISBN 0826447317. info
  • Stardom : industry of desire. Edited by Christine Gledhill. First published. London: Routledge, 1991, xx, 340. ISBN 0415052173. info
  • Acting in the cinema. Edited by James Naremore. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988, ix, 307 p. ISBN 9780520910669. info
    recommended literature
  • WRIGHT, Julie Lobalzo. Crossover stardom : popular male music stars in American cinema. First published. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018, ix, 205. ISBN 9781628925807. info
  • Stellar encounters : stardom in popular European cinema. Edited by Tytti Soila. New Barnet, Herts: John Libbey, 2009, viii, 294. ISBN 9780861966790. info
  • Contemporary Hollywood stardom. Edited by Thomas Austin - Martin Barker. 1st pub. London: Arnold, 2003, iv, 300. ISBN 034080937X. info
Teaching methods
Twelve lectures focused on different topics with adjacent screenings.
Assessment methods
For completing the course students have to write a final essay. The paper will focus on a single film with a star casting of student's choice.
The final paper has to:
- be at minimum 6 pages long (cca 1500 words minimum)
- employ any scholarly conception of stardom, celebrity fame, performance and/or acting
- include not only the film itself in the argumentation, but various paratexts as well (promotion, publicity, comments and criticism)
- follow bibliographical guidelines
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
Study Materials
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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