Pustaka Ilmiah Universitas Padjadjaran

Abstrak

Narrating The Self And Photographic Narrative In The Auto/Biographies Of Indonesian Celebrities

This paper examines the parallel of the structure of celebrity auto/biographies to that of women’s/fashion magazines, especially the abundant inclusion of photographs and images. I argue that in auto/biographies of celebrities, images and photographs constitute a space for Self narration. By doing textual and visual analysis, both the content and the discourse around the photographic narrative, I argue that photographic narrative establishes the narrative of the Self through masquerade and temporality. As in women’s/fashion magazines, images in celebrity auto/biographies are presented to stabilize the celebrity status of the celebrities featured. The idea of auto/biographies as a space for celebrities to present themselves “the way they are” is almost always compromised and refuted. I argue that the narratives, images, advertisements included in the auto/biographies work both to reveal and to cover that result in the construction of the celebrity selves as fragmented yet coherent.