| Popis: |
Unlike what many historians and critics believe, the so-called “crisis” of Mexican cinema in the late 1950s did not mark the death of the film industry, but rather the emergence of a youth star system. This project takes up three well-known young multi-platform Mexican stars: Angelica Maria, Meche Carreño, and Lucer(it)o, all of whom rose to fame in their adolescence during the second half of the 20th century. These youth stars function as bellwethers of three particular moments of Mexican cultural and capitalist modernization. As an entity recognized and articulated by both the political, cultural, and socio-economic spheres, “youth” offer a vantage point to see the divergent, (in)direct relationships between the triad of the State, cultural industries, and modernity. As “feeling star bodies” (Gopinath), these young women play a role in the formation of subjects in Mexico, often mediating the emotional, affective, and sensorial experiences of modernity and modernization. The institution of stardom was used in 20th century Mexico to offer idealized models of behavior and normative emotions (via Reddy’s “emotional regime”). Youth stars also operate on a symbolically formative terrain, a space that can both bolster and question hegemonic norms. I consider the central qualities of their star images as well as the contradictions related to gender, sexuality, and ethnicity that these stars expose. Each chapter employs the concept of the “starscape,” which calls for compiling “intermedial” constellations of the star’s cultural production of all forms (audio/visual, print, and performance) as well as paratextual materials. The “starscape” centers the star amongst the larger horizon of production and the configuration of cultural industries within the given socio-political and historical era. My study has larger implications for adding cultural specificity and a new methodology to Star Studies, a subfield of Film and Media studies. Likewise, it pushes Mexican film and cultural studies away from sexenio periodization and the centrality of mexicanidad as analytical paradigm. |
