The Celebrity Interview: History, Aesthetics, Method
Tuesday, 17 January 2017, 5.30pm-7pm
Oxford Centre for Life-Writing, Wolfson College
Leonard Wolfson Auditorium, Wolfson College, Linton Road, Oxford OX2 6UD
The second in a new series of OCLW events focusing on the intersections
of life-writing and celebrity, this discussion panel is dedicated to the genre
of the celebrity interview. Scholars and practitioners will cast a spotlight on
one of the dominant forms in contemporary media and celebrity culture,
exploring its history, aesthetics, and methodology. In her talk on “Interviews
and the Work of Celebrity”, Rebecca Roach (King’s College London) will consider
the labour involved in a format often derided as being little else but
celebrity gossip, even though it has become the predominant mode of
(self)promotion for authors and other public figures. Anneleen Masschelein
(University of Leuven, Belgium) examines the practice of the recorded last
interview by eminent intellectuals, such as Dennis Potter, Edward Said, and
Stuart Hall. Her contribution looks at this media phenomenon in the light of
the ‘famous last words’ tradition and against the background of a shift in
practices of dying in contemporary Western culture.
The panel will be rounded off by a ‘meta interview’: a conversation between critic and biographer Hermione Lee and arts journalist and broadcaster Mark Lawson about the art and method of the celebrity interview.
The event is free and open to all.
For more information, please contact: [log in to unmask]
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