Literary Celebrity in the United States and Canada

Abstract

While the title of this chapter would seem to invite a study in contrasts, a comparison of national forms of celebrity requires a flexible analysis that acknowledges both the transnational dynamics of globalized literary markets and the specific institutional, political, and demographic conditions that inflect the performance of celebrity at particular geopolitical sites. This evaluation of differences, however, needs to distinguish itself from the ideologically laden Canadian tendency to see our culture as blessedly (or woefully) innocent of the highly industrialized star manufacture that takes place in the United States. Precisely because of the frequently felt imperative to paint Canadian culture as superior in its wholesomeness, in its imperviousness to the lure of a celebrity culture associated with the United States, I sought to cast “doubt upon the notion of a specifically Canadian approach to fame” in my previous work in this field, arguing that “no nationally specific performance of celebrity marks Canadian literary stars” (York 2007, 3, 5). Indeed, this very desire to protect Canada as a national space that is magically shielded from the twinned forces of celebrity and capitalism is worthy of continuing analysis. However, while Canadian literary stars may not perform their celebrity status in the modest key that this national mythology prescribes, the material processes through which that celebrity is attained and that allow for its expression are modulated by the material conditions of the national culture.