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Ken Gelder

Related: Cultural Studies - culture theory

Profile

Ken Gelder is an Associate Professor/Reader in English at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of Reading the Vampire (1994) and co-editor with Sarah Thornton of The Subcultures Reader (1997), both pubished by Routledge

Fame Games review

Fame Games: The Production of Celebrity in Australia
CULTURAL STUDIES NOW has many branches, one of which, celebrity studies, has gained some recent notoriety. This is partly because it involves humanities academics working hard to make low cultural activity respectable -- even, in some recent variants, 'progressive' -- which is always interesting to see, both in terms of how they argue their case and who they offend along the way (highbrow literary critics, for example). But celebrity studies has also been notorious, in Australia at least, because some of its own practitioners have become celebrities of a kind themselves. Catherine Lumby and McKenzie Wark are no doubt well enough known to readers here not just for their defence of 'tabloidisation', their fascination with fame and their cross-media flexibility, but also for their tendency to self-promote and to promote each other. Just as in the literary field, as Mark Davis chronicles, Craven reviews Fraser who then reviews Craven, always flatteringly, so Lumby praises Wark who then duly returns the favour (I recall a particularly delirious essay by Wark on Lumby in Continuum not long ago). Nothing unusual about this, of course: every cultural field has its own version of the 'gangland'. So it is gratifying to find our two stars on the back cover of Fame Games, giving this newcomer to celebrity studies their obligatory seal of approval. --Ken Gelder via http://home.vicnet.net.au/~abr/DecJan01/kg.html

The Horror Reader (2000) - Ken Gelder

1. The Horror Reader (2000) - Ken Gelder [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
   Spanning the history of horror in literature and film, from Edgar Allen Poe to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Horror Reader brings together essential writings on this most spectacular and controversial of genres. It covers classic gothic literature like Frankenstein to lesbian vampire movies and new Asian horror. An introduction by Ken Gelder and a preface before each section prepares the reader for the next topic of discussion on this fascinating genre. --amazon.com

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