Celebrity Cultures in Canada is an interdisciplinary collection that explores celebrity phenomena and the ways they have operated and developed in Canada over the last two centuries. The chapters address a variety of cultural venuesâpolitics, sports, film, and literatureâand examine the political, cultural, material, and affective conditions that shaped celebrity in Canada and its uses both at home and abroad. The scope of the book enables the authors to highlight the trends that characterize Canadian celebrityâsuch as transnationality and bureaucracyâand explore the regional, linguistic, administrative, and indigenous cultures and institutions that distinguish fame in Canada from fame elsewhere.
In historicizing and theorizing Canadaâs complicated cultures of celebrity, Celebrity Cultures in Canada rejects the argument that nations are irrelevant in todayâs global celebrityscapes or that Canada lacks a credible or adequate system for producing, distributing, and consuming celebrity. Nation and national identities continue to matterâto celebrities, to fans, and to institutions and industries that manage and profit from celebrity systemsâand Canada, this collection argues, has a vibrant, powerful, and often complicated and controversial relationship to fame.