Celebrities, Fans and Muses: Mapping Cultural Influences

This project aims to explore the construction of celebrity in literature, popular culture and society. It considers three aspects of fame that are often interrelated: the celebrity muse who inspires the work of art; the celebrated artist, writer or text; and the fan, including those celebrities who themselves become fans of others. The project will focus on the global celebrity of Sherlock Holmes; the famous literary muses that inspired the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron; Emily Dickinson’s poetic fandom; contemporary celebrity texts that inspire prequels and sequels; and the geographical spread and sociological stratification of such cultural forms of celebrity interaction.