Dear Fai,
Thanks for your comment. Indeed, the ways in which phenomena of global reach are being received locally is of great interest. I wonder what kids in Asia or in the Southern hemisphere for that matter think of Hannah. do you have any insights?
I am not interested in "realness".-- It is a matter of training, interests and disciplinary discursive pratices that I cite the authors that I cite. I simply work a lot with psychoanalytical and philosophical categories. You need a coherent system of categories from which to operate. if I try to understand something like Hannah Montana as a phenomenon, I am , of course, broad in my research. Interdisciplinarity is a blessing in that it alerts me to fresh approaches and ideas -- and some tools are indeed better suited to address a phenomenon than others. Celebrity studies, contributions from reception studies, fan studies etc. will all have valuable things to say about Hannah Montana. I am keen on checking thru the journals in the library in the hope of digging up articles.I are there any qualitative sociological studies on Hannah Montana?!!
I have to confess I never liked Daniel Boorstin. Chris Rojek cites him, right? Boorstin wrote when he saw the Kennedy-Nixon debate: Politicians are produced, media-mediated, couterfeit (his beloved word). Oh well. Boorstin cooperated with Mc Carthy in some of the worst ways imaginable. To me, his underlying idea of authenticity seems fascist, to put it bluntly (a lot has been written on the links between politcis and aesthetics but this longing for the true, the pure, the unmediated is simply compromised) . Being the historian that he is, his theoretical tools are a bit weak, I`d say. -- Baudrillard is much more precise, so is Lyotard when it comes to speaking about the "event" (or all the Euro-US Heidegger-inspired philosophers for that matter). But then again, there are obviously canons for the various disciplines.
Cheers,
Nina
Dear Nina,
I came into the debate a bit late... instead of thinking about debates
of realness (Baudrillard, Zizek etc), what first came to my mind was
Boorstin's notion of human emptiness. What might constitute meaningful
or emptiness for young female fans/girls? The references suggested
thus far should be useful, as might be classic star/celebrity studies
and fan studies literature- Rojek (celetoid e.g.), Marshall, McRobbie,
Jackie Stacey (given the discussion about distance).
The literature of the transnational circulation of Japanese media and
girl fan culture prompts another direction of research, doesn't it? Is
it necessary to consider the international circulation of Hannah
Montana? It's interesting that you were first alerted to the subject
from your daughter's experience who lives in Switzerland? How does
Montana (a Disney creation) engender such wide, universal appeal? The
programme is available in South Asia, East Asia and South America as
well. I wonder what the reception is like in all these places because
Hannah Montana seems the epitome of Euro-American, mostly white
girlhood to me (am definitely above the age of the target audience, so
I could be wrong there!), which reminds me of some work I did on
Barbie. That will lead to a whole lot of other literature.
Best,
Fai
--
Leung Wing-Fai/Leon Hunt
East Asian Cinemas: Exploring Transnational Connections on Film
http://www.amazon.com/East-Asian-Cinemas-Transnational-Connections/dp/1845116151/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218806807&sr=8-1
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