Alive but Cancelled: The Public’s Response to the Controversial Author

Keywords
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Issue Date
2021-08-25
Language
en
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This thesis explores how the public has responded to authors J.K. Rowling and Lionel Shriver, who have become the subject of public controversy, and what this response tells us about the current conceptions about the author. Academics like Wenche Ommundsen and English & Frow have established that authors are no longer the faceless names they once were, and several of them have reached a proper celebrity status. Especially now, in a time in which social media exerts great influence on how the general public views celebrities and concepts like “wokeness” and social justice become increasingly relevant topics, celebrities and celebrity authors are often expected to display socially just behaviour and reprimanded when they do not. By analysing the online responses to the controversies caused by these two prominent authors, this thesis argues that the public perceives a strong relationship between authors and their work and generally attributes a great deal of responsibility to popular authors with vast platforms. Keywords: Lionel Shriver; J.K. Rowling; literary celebrity; wokeness; cancel culture; Death of the Author; transphobia; cultural appropriation
Description
Citation
Faculty
Faculteit der Letteren
Specialisation