Document Type
Article
Abstract
This essay will examine the paradox of the celebrity Canadian as a marker of regional, national, and transnational modes of celebrity production and circulation, focusing particularly on questions of passing and/or mimicry. First, I will consider how Canadians have engaged in border crossings and the different strategies of assimilation/camouflage and differentiation they have used to locate Canadianness as part of their star identities (or not). In this I also consider what kinds of Canadian identities work (and how they work) in transnational star spaces; that is, which Canadian celebrity bodies have been able to engage in this kind of border crossing. Second, I will examine the paradoxical nature of the more rare creature: the Canadian celebrity at home. I consider why it is that these identities may be stopped at the border, and how they are recuperated to celebrity status within the nation. In both cases, I am interested in unpacking the Canadian celebrity as an uncanny marker of desire as they circulate within local, national, and transnational space.
Repository Citation
Byers, Michele. "On the (Im)possibility of Canadian Celebrity." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 12, no. 1, 2012, pp. 1–22. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol12/iss1/4