Vitafiction as a Mode of Self-Fashioning: The Case of Michael J. Fox in Curb Your Enthusiasm

Vitafiction and virality: Celebrities fictionalizing the self online

“…Thus, the vitafictional mode entails the possibility of influencing the 'course of life' (curriculum vitae) of the celebrities. Earlier work on vitafiction, has primarily focused on the possibilities of the vitafictional mode in TV series (Jacobsen, 2008a(Jacobsen, , 2008b(Jacobsen, , 2012(Jacobsen, , 2015 and advertising contexts (Jacobsen, forthcoming). In this article, I am specifically interested in what makes this kind of self-fashioning travel across media and go viral.…”

“…The mode of vitafiction is an example of fictionality used strategically across media: ‘In the vitafictional mode fictionality operates together with an obtrusive surplus of biographical details (hence Curriculum Vitae)’ (Jacobsen, 2015: 253). When celebrities play themselves, their names match and typically there are other similarities such as career, family, and acquaintances.…”

“…The concurrent surplus of fictionality and the biographical is what creates the biographical undecidability that makes the receiver negotiate between the performance of the celebrity and what she knows about the celebrity from other media platforms. The vitafictional is intermedially founded because it operates in an interplay between the sender of the vitafictional message, the vitafictional message itself, the receiver, and a number of other media texts about the celebrity and the thematized issues: ‘Through a continuous feedback loop between these positions, vitafiction can affect the media landscape from which it was created’ (Jacobsen, 2015: 253).…”

“…As we shall see, celebrities can use fictionalization to take on stigmatizations circulated in the media and thereby fashion their identities. Vitafiction ‘provides the possibility for shaping your own real story, creating a biographical contribution through the means of fictionality’ (Jacobsen, 2015: 261). Thus, the vitafictional mode entails the possibility of influencing the ‘course of life’ (curriculum vitae) of the celebrities.…”

“…the TV series Curb Your Enthusiasm, Extras, and Louie or the George Clooney Nespresso commercials). To account for this widespread media cultural phenomenon, I have suggested the term "vitafiction" (Jacobsen 2008(Jacobsen , 2012(Jacobsen , 2015. In vitafiction celebrities play fictionalized versions of themselves and these roles cannot be completely separated from who they are as real people.…”