Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download The Frenzy of Renown PDF full book. Access full book title The Frenzy of Renown by Leo Braudy. Download full books in PDF and EPUB format.
Author: Leo Braudy Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0679776303 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 722
Book Description
“Remarkably ambitious . . . an impressive tour de force.” —Washington Post Book World For Alexander the Great, fame meant accomplishing what no mortal had ever accomplished before. For Julius Caesar, personal glory was indistinguishable from that of Rome. The early Christians devalued public recognition, believing that the only true audience was God. And Marilyn Monroe owed much of her fame to the fragility that led to self-destruction. These are only some of the dozens of figures that populate Leo Braudy’s panoramic history of fame, a book that tells us as much about vast cultural changes as it does about the men and women who at different times captured their societies' regard. Spanning thousands of years and fields ranging from politics to literature and mass media, The Frenzy of Renown explores the unfolding relationship between the famous and their audiences, between fame and the representations that make it possible. Hailed as a landmark at its original publication and now reissued with a new Afterword covering the last tumultuous decade, here is a major work that provides our celebrity-obsessed, post-historical society with a usable past. “Expansive . . . Braudy excels at rocketing a general point into the air with the fuel of drama. ” —Harper's
Author: Leo Braudy Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0679776303 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 722
Book Description
“Remarkably ambitious . . . an impressive tour de force.” —Washington Post Book World For Alexander the Great, fame meant accomplishing what no mortal had ever accomplished before. For Julius Caesar, personal glory was indistinguishable from that of Rome. The early Christians devalued public recognition, believing that the only true audience was God. And Marilyn Monroe owed much of her fame to the fragility that led to self-destruction. These are only some of the dozens of figures that populate Leo Braudy’s panoramic history of fame, a book that tells us as much about vast cultural changes as it does about the men and women who at different times captured their societies' regard. Spanning thousands of years and fields ranging from politics to literature and mass media, The Frenzy of Renown explores the unfolding relationship between the famous and their audiences, between fame and the representations that make it possible. Hailed as a landmark at its original publication and now reissued with a new Afterword covering the last tumultuous decade, here is a major work that provides our celebrity-obsessed, post-historical society with a usable past. “Expansive . . . Braudy excels at rocketing a general point into the air with the fuel of drama. ” —Harper's
Author: Leo Braudy Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 9780195051780 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 674
Book Description
What is fame? A name? A face? The "it" in "making it"? In this wide-ranging and ambitious book, Leo Braudy traces the evolving definition of fame from the time of Homer to the present. As Braudy points out, fame is far from just a 20th-century obsession: it has a history, and the twists and turns of that history have determined the terms by which we now understand the phenomenon. Beginning with the Homeric epics and exploits of Alexander the Great, and proceeding to our current idolatry of media figures, the book explains how the definition of fame depends on the political and social system in which it is found, the culture's concept of what a person is, and, of course, the media available for disseminating images. Over the past 2,500 years, fame has had a variety of meanings: from the Roman commitment to public action and the Christian belief that God is the ultimate audience; to the Renaissance idea of the heroic artist and 19th-century notions of posterity and the avant garde; to the idealization of the king and the view that movie stars are the consummate role models. Drawing on art, literature, political history, religion, and philosophy, The Frenzy of Renown offers a fascinating parade of personalities--Julius Caesar and Jesus, Charlemagne and Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson and Abraham Lincoln, Adolf Hitler and Marilyn Monroe--all of whom have changed the way everyone appears in the eyes of others.
Author: Leo Braudy Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0307773418 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 658
Book Description
Manliness has always been linked to physical prowess and to war; indeed the warrior has been the archetypal man across countless cultures throughout time. In this magisterial excursion through literature, history, warfare, and sociology, one of our most prominent scholars tracks the complex relationship between the changing methods and goals of warfare and shifting models of manhood. This journey takes us from the citizen soldiers of ancient Greece to the medieval knights to the misogynistic terrorists of Al Qaeda. As he chronicles these transformations, Leo Braudy weighs the significance of everything from weapon technology to the hairstyles favored during different eras. He offers fresh insights on codes of war and codes of racial purity, and on cultural and historical figures from Socrates to Don Quixote to Napoleon to Custer to Rambo. Epic in scope and free of academic jargon, From Chivalry to Terrorism is a masterwork of scholarship that is both accessible and breathtakingly ambitious.
Author: Leo Braudy Publisher: Yale University Press ISBN: 0300203802 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 335
Book Description
Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- 1 Shaping Fear -- 2 Between Hope and Fear: Horror and Religion -- 3 Terror, Horror, and the Cult of Nature -- 4 Frankenstein, Robots, and Androids: Horror and the Manufactured Monster -- 5 The Detective's Reason -- 6 Jekyll and Hyde: The Monster from Within -- 7 Dracula and the Haunted Present -- 8 Horror in the Age of Visual Reproduction -- Notes -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Z -- Illustrations
Author: David Giles Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1137096500 Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 195
Book Description
What drives people to crave fame and celebrity? How does fame affect people psychologically? These issues are frequently discussed by the media but up till now psychologists have shied away from an academic away from an academic investigation of the phenomenon of fame. In this lively, eclectic book David Giles examines fame and celebrity from a variety of perspectives. He argues that fame should be seen as a process rather than a state of being, and that 'celebrity' has largely emerged through the technological developments of the last 150 years. Part of our problem in dealing with celebrities, and the problem celebrities have dealing with the public, is that the social conditions produced by the explosion in mass communications have irrevocably altered the way we live. However we know little about many of the phenomena these conditions have produced - such as the 'parasocial interaction' between television viewers and media characters, and the quasi-religious activity of 'fans'. Perhaps the biggest single dilemma for celebrities is the fact that the vehicle that creates fame for them - the media - is also their tormentor. To address these questions, David Giles draws on research from psychology, sociology, media and communications studies, history and anthropology - as well as his own experiences as a music journalist in the 1980s. He argues that the history of fame is inextricably linked to the emergence of the individual self as a central theme of Western culture, and considers how the desire for authenticity, as well as individual privacy, have created anxieties for celebrities which are best understood in their historical and cultural context.
Author: Leo Braudy Publisher: Yale University Press ISBN: 0300158785 Category : Performing Arts Languages : en Pages : 216
Book Description
The story behind the massive white block letters set into a steep Los Angeles hillside—and the city and culture they represent: “Terrific.”—San Francisco Chronicle To so many who see its image, the Hollywood sign represents the earthly home of that otherwise ethereal world of fame, stardom, celebrity—the American and worldwide aspiration to be in the limelight, to be, like the Hollywood sign itself, instantly recognizable. How an advertisement erected in 1923, touting the real estate development Hollywoodland, took on a life of its own is a story worthy of a movie itself. Leo Braudy traces the remarkable life of this distinctly American landmark, which has been saved over the years by a various fans and supporters, among them Alice Cooper and Hugh Hefner, who spearheaded its reconstruction in the 1970s. He also uses the sign’s history to offer an intriguing look at the rise of the film business from its earliest, silent days through the development of the studio system that helped define modern Hollywood. Mixing social history, urban studies, literature, and film, along with forays into such topics as the lure of Hollywood for utopian communities and the development of domestic architecture in Los Angeles, The Hollywood Sign is a fascinating account of how a temporary structure has become a permanent icon of American culture. “An entertaining tale.”—The Washington Post
Author: Leo Braudy Publisher: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 9780226071558 Category : Performing Arts Languages : en Pages : 292
Book Description
"An exciting, entertaining exploration of films. . . . [Braudy] attempts to understand rather than promulgate rules and categories, and somehow to keep the criteria of enjoyment in some meaningful connection with the criteria of judgment."—Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times
Author: Eileen Chang Publisher: New York Review of Books ISBN: 1681375761 Category : Literary Collections Languages : en Pages : 273
Book Description
Now back in print, these witty, insightful ssays on fashion, cinema, wartime, and everyday life demonstrate why Eileen Chang was and is a major icon of twentieth-century Chinese literature. Eileen Chang is one of the most celebrated and influential modern Chinese novelists and cultural critics of the twentieth century. First published in 1944, and just as beloved as her fiction in the Chinese-speaking world, Written on Water collects Chang’s reflections on art, literature, war, urban culture, and her own life as a writer and woman, set amid the sights and sounds of wartime Shanghai and Hong Kong. In a style at once meditative and vibrant, Chang writes of friends, colleagues, and teachers turned soldiers or wartime volunteers, and her own experiences as a part-time nurse. She also reflects on Chinese cinema, the aims of the writer, and the popularity of the Peking Opera. Chang engages the reader with her sly and sophisticated humor, conversational voice, and intense fascination with the subtleties of everyday life. In her examination of Shanghainese food, culture, and fashions, she not only reveals but also upends prevalent attitudes toward women, presenting a portrait of a daring and cosmopolitan woman bent on questioning pieties and enjoying the pleasures of modernity, even as the world convulses in war and a revolution looms.
Author: Sharon Marcus Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 0691210187 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 324
Book Description
Why do so many people care so much about celebrities? Who decides who gets to be a star? What are the privileges and pleasures of fandom? Do celebrities ever deserve the outsized attention they receive? In this fascinating and deeply researched book, Sharon Marcus challenges everything you thought you knew about our obsession with fame. Icons are not merely famous for being famous; the media alone cannot make or break stars; fans are not simply passive dupes. Instead, journalists, the public, and celebrities themselves all compete, passionately and expertly, to shape the stories we tell about celebrities and fans. The result: a high-stakes drama as endless as it is unpredictable. Drawing on scrapbooks, personal diaries, and vintage fan mail, Marcus traces celebrity culture back to its nineteenth-century roots, when people the world over found themselves captivated by celebrity chefs, bad-boy poets, and actors such as the "divine" Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923), as famous in her day as the Beatles in theirs. Known in her youth for sleeping in a coffin, hailed in maturity as a woman of genius, Bernhardt became a global superstar thanks to savvy engagement with her era's most innovative media and technologies: the popular press, commercial photography, and speedy new forms of travel. Whether you love celebrity culture or hate it, The Drama of Celebrity will change how you think about one of the most important phenomena of modern times.
Author: Leo Braudy
Author: Leo Braudy
Author: Leo Braudy
Author: Leo Braudy
Author: Leo Braudy
Author: David Giles
Author: Leo Braudy
Author: Leo Braudy
Author: Leo Braudy
Author: Eileen Chang
Author: Sharon Marcus