Commodities in Literature, Literature as Commodity: A Close Look at the Gossip Girl Series

Pattee, Amy

doi:10.1353/chq.2006.0042

Cited by 13 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The fashion habits of the characters were an important aspect of the show. They were similar to Sex and the City"s (Star, 1998), since each character had a signature piece that was noticeable throughout the episodes (Pattee, 2006). When celebrating the 100th episode of Gossip Girl, a special report entitled "Five Years of Iconic Style" was conducted, filmed, and added as a bonus to the fifth season.…”

Section: Viewers' Identification With Gossip Girl Fashion Stylesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gossip Girl setting fashion trends: Lebanese young viewers identification with media characters

Abi-Khalil¹,

Mady²

2016

J. Media Commun. Stud.

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This article aims at expanding the knowledge of identification with the fashion of media characters on the series Gossip Girl (Schwartz and Savage, 2007). Since the subject has already been investigated abroad, this article helps gain an understanding of the topic in Lebanon, and its influence on Lebanese female teenagers and young adults. The theory of Identification is adopted throughout the study. The article uses a qualitative research method to analyse a series of interviews with eighteen Lebanese females, between the ages of 16 and 26 years old. The interview questions are explored under four themes: the fashion element of Gossip Girl, similarities, imitation and identification. The main findings indicate that the interviewees are aware of the prominent fashion element of the series and imitate their favourite characters in terms of fashion styles. This leads to the deduction of identification with Gossip Girl characters' fashion styles.

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Section: Viewers' Identification With Gossip Girl Fashion Stylesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gossip Girl setting fashion trends: Lebanese young viewers identification with media characters

Abi-Khalil¹,

Mady²

2016

J. Media Commun. Stud.

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“…On the Twilight Saga website owned by Little, Brown (an imprint of Hachette), Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series, recently participated in a question and answer session with fans (Twilight Saga, n.d.) and on the 'Sisterhood Central' section of the Random Buzzers site (Random House, n.d.) participants are able to do the same with Ann Brashares, author of the Traveling Pants series. In this way, participants can have a social relationship with their favorite authors, and build a connection with the literary mode of production, as described by Pattee (2006). Examples of the type of discourse between readers and YA authors is shown in Figure 3.…”

Section: Labor and Affective Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transmedia teens: Affect, immaterial labor, and user-generated content

Martens

2011

Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Med

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The internet offers teens (especially girls, who have embraced social aspects of the web) a voice in the books they read, from reviewing, blogging, and creating fan sites, to actually collaborating on books-in-progress — such as The Amanda Project — by writing portions of the book or suggesting storylines. But while these new means of participation are seemingly empowering for teenage girls, is this participation a form of empowerment, or is it merely a way for publishers to exploit teens’ labor to create commodified cultural products which they in turn can sell back to the teens who helped shape them? In an era of user-generated content, this article examines how teens’ affective labor as peer-to-peer-marketers and content creators is changing the transmedia cultural products created for them.

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“…Neither critic extends his analysis to explore the product enmeshed in the narrative, nor the way its advertising capacity is influenced by the narratological features of the text itself. Amy Pattee's (2006) more recent article on Gossip Girl addresses the presence of brands in the series, a reading to which I will return, but, likewise, it focuses principally on the novels as commodities in their own right and, thus, in relation to the series' peri-textual and extra-textual aspects.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Inside story: product placement and adolescent consumer identity in young adult fiction

Bullen

2009

Media, Culture & Society

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Stewart and Weisman, 2006), entered a marketing agreement with Proctor & Gamble, manufacturers of Covergirl cosmetics. References to shades of Lipslicks lip gloss and Covergirl mascara were introduced into the novel. In return, Cathy's Book was publicized on Proctor & Gamble's Beinggirl website. The marketing agreement was particularly controversial in the United States where, it is claimed, more children than anywhere else in the world 'believe that their clothes and brands describe who they are and define their social status' (Schor, 2004: 13). This state of affairs, which arguably extends beyond the borders of the heartland of consumer capitalism, has been widely attributed to the extensive advertising exposure to which the youth of today are subject. As the first publicized instance of formally arranged product placement in a young adult novel, Cathy's Book marks a watershed in the commodification of children's literature and its appropriation as an instrument of consumer capitalism.Much has been written about the commodification of child and youth culture, in particular how screen texts are used to socialize the young into consumer society. Disney led the way, using its films and characters as part of its broader marketing strategy from the 1930s. The sale of licensed merchandise provided publicity for the films, and the films advertised the product, combining two mutually reinforcing 'registers of consumption ' (de Cordova, 1994). Today, screen texts are routinely used to promote a range of disparate brand-name items via cross-selling and product placement. Indeed, it has contributed to the hybridization of entertainment and advertising Bullen, 2001, 2008), that is, the integration of advertising into film and television texts (and vice versa). The conflation of the pleasures of entertainment with the pleasures of consumption is a key mechanism in the enculturation of the young into consumer society.Although children's and young adult fiction has generally avoided being actively or extensively co-opted into the agendas of consumer capitalism in this way, informal product placement in novels for this audience is actually not uncommon. However, the implications for the socialization of readers into consumer culture have not been subjected to the scrutiny that screen texts receive. Taking an emerging subgenre of young adult fiction distinguished by the conspicuous consumption of its affluent teenage

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Commodities in Literature, Literature as Commodity: A Close Look at the Gossip Girl Series

Cited by 13 publications

References 5 publications

Gossip Girl setting fashion trends: Lebanese young viewers identification with media characters

Gossip Girl setting fashion trends: Lebanese young viewers identification with media characters

Transmedia teens: Affect, immaterial labor, and user-generated content

Inside story: product placement and adolescent consumer identity in young adult fiction

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