About

There is a substantial body of lyric poems written by Americans since the mid-twentieth century that feature film stars. What has the Hollywood dream factory, famous for its fabricated icons, got to do with the lyric poem, a form traditionally concerned with the construction of a poetic voice or self? The aim of this research is to explore how and why American poets have deployed the lyric to explore complex identities via the artifice and illusory intimacy of the screen star. 

I argue that the lyric poem can be compared to film, as the lyric forms a ‘screen’ between the poet-speaker and the reader that gives an impression of intimacy. Celebrity culture similarly generates an appearance of accessibility, but as Guy Debord (1967) notes, celebrities are 'well known for not being what they seem'. I suggest that fusing stardom and the lyric creates a poetic form, which I will call star poetry, that uses subterfuge as a literary device. 

My study will explore how star poetry allows the poet-speaker to use the star image as an avatar for the self, enabling the exploration of alternative identity positions through the public symbol of the star whilst maintaining a personal voice. Specifically, I will focus on how queer and feminist poetry use star iconography from classic Hollywood to interrogate gender roles.

This study has three aims: to explore the different lyric techniques used to depict identity in star poetry, to analyse the significance of star images for discussions of gender identity, and to consider how star poetry illuminates contemporary debates on celebrity culture. I will take an interdisciplinary method to achieve these aims, fusing queer studies, feminist studies and film studies alongside literary theory to offer an innovative approach to celebrity culture via poetry.