Making Stars: Biography and Celebrity in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Performing Celebrity)

In bringing biography and celebrity together, the essays in __Making Stars__ interrogate contemporary and current understandings of each. Although biography was not invented in the eighteenth century, the period saw the emergence of works that focus on individuals who are interesting as much, if not more, for their everyday, lived experience than for their status or actions. At the same time, celebrity emerged as public fascination for the private lives of publicly visible individuals. Biography and celebrity are mutually constitutive, but in complex and varied ways that this volume unpacks. Contributors to this volume present us a picture of eighteenth-century celebrity that was mediated across multiple sites, demonstrating that eighteenth-century celebrity culture in Britain was more pervasive, diverse and, in many ways, more egalitarian, than previously supposed. CONTENTS 5 ILLUSTRATIONS 9 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 13 INTRODUCTION 15 PART I REPRESENTING CELEBRITY ON THE STAGE AND THE PAGE 31 1 THE PERIODICAL AND THE PRISM Two Ways of Working at Celebrity in the Careers of Catherine Clive, Eliza Haywood, and Charlotte Charke 31 2 EMBODIED STAGE BIOGRAPHY AND CELEBRITY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 57 3 IMAGE/COUNTERIMAGE Contesting Celebrity in Graphic Satire 71 PART II MARKETING CELEBRITY IN THE MATERIAL WORLD 93 4 MODULAR POPE Letters, Portraits, and the Collectible Celebrity 93 5 BIOGRAPHICAL FICTIONS Improvisation, Temporality, and the Celebrated Gunning Sisters, 1750 to Today 132 6 ART AND MERCHANDISE, FOLLOWERS AND FRAGILITY Creating the Blueprint for Animal Celebrity 162 PART III LIFE WRITING AS SELF-DEFENSE 193 7 NEGLECTED GENIUS William Henry Ireland’s Quest for Anonymous Celebrity 193 8 INTERPRETING A LIFE Theophilus Cibber, Celebrity Biography, and Public Adjudication 211 9 LEGAL STARDOM Law, Life Writing, and Celebrity in the Case of Mary Bowes, Countess of Strathmore 231 PART IV THE BODY AND THE BODY POLITIC 249 10 CREATING CELEBRATORY MEMORY The Tombeaux des Princes 249 11 EMBODIED POLITICS Marlborough, Celebrity, and Secret History 269 12 THE EVERYDAY CELEBRITY OF “SIR” JEFFREY DUNSTAN, MAYOR OF GARRAT 291 PART V WHOSE LIFE IS IT ANYWAY? 323 13 A “UNIVERSALLY SORROWFUL SENSATION” National Mourning, Narrative, and Celebrity in the Posthumous Biographies of Princess Charlotte Augusta 323 14 SPECTACULAR MATERIALS The Afterlives of Murderess Mary Blandy 339 15 EXTRA-ILLUSTRATION, PARTICIPATORY BIOGRAPHY, AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF CELEBRITY 358 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 375 INDEX 381 "In bringing biography and celebrity together, the essays in Making Stars interrogate contemporary and current understandings of each. Although biography was not invented in the eighteenth century, the period saw the emergence of works that focus on individuals who are interesting as much, if not more, for their everyday, lived experience than for their status or actions. At the same time, celebrity emerged as public fascination for the private lives of publicly visible individuals. Biography and celebrity are mutually constitutive, but in complex and varied ways that this volume unpacks. Contributors to this volume present us a picture of eighteenth-century celebrity that was mediated across multiple sites, demonstrating that eighteenth-century celebrity culture in Britain was more pervasive, diverse and, in many ways, more egalitarian, than previously supposed"-- Provided by publisher