“We live round here too": Representing fandom and local celebrity in Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

On Saturday 7th June, 2014, the documentary Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets opened the twenty-first annual Sheffield Documentary Film Festival Doc/Fest. Although focusing on the band Pulp, the film represents both fans and forms of celebrity. Whilst the film does feature young female fans who express feelings of desire towards Pulp’s lead singer Jarvis Cocker, these are not the only fans we see on-screen. In depicting different types of fan, Pulp: The Film offers a space for fan voices and for a diversity of representation across gender, age and class. Secondly, and intertwined with discussion of fandom, the film presents a range of celebrity representations, from the nationally recognisable enduring stardom of Jarvis Cocker and the more residual fame of other Pulp band members, to the geographically rooted and limited recognition of those who appear in the documentary itself. In its apparent levelling out and equalising of both fan identity and forms of local celebrity, Pulp: The Film demonstrates that although “types of media fandom are still far from entirely “normalised” within contemporary culture” (Hills 2007:463), there can be challenges to what is presented as ‘normalised’ and how we a range of fan and local celebrity identities are constructed.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSeeing Fans
Subtitle of host publicationRepresentations of Fandom in Media and Popular Culture
EditorsLucy Bennett, Paul Booth
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherBloomsbury
Pages23-32
ISBN (Print)9781501318450
Publication statusPublished - 2016

Keywords

  • celebrity
  • Fandom
  • place and space
  • local celebrity

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