Authors and media entertainment: Australian literary celebrity since the 1970s

This thesis examines literary celebrity in Australia since the 1970s. It focuses on how authorial celebrity is now articulated through literary media entertainment, as formulated by a convergence of two economies: the entertainment economy and the attention economy. It argues that contemporary literary celebrity originated with a shift in Australian literature from its national imperative to a globally orientated commodity, which increasingly made use of the paradigms of celebrity as an effective marketing tool in the promotion of authors. The thesis demonstrates the working of Australian literary celebrity through three case studies, Thomas Keneally, Kate Grenville and Richard Flanagan.