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Abstract

This essay analyzes the relationship between Princess Diana's celebrity and her photographed image in two popular, posthumous media constructions of Diana's life. Utilizing Richard Dyer's work on Hollywood stars and identity authenticity, both works are contextuahzed in tabloid journalism and its ambivalent authority in the construction of celebrity image. The paper then applies a semiotic lens to each publication's construction of the relationship between photograph and language, exploring how these joined symbolic systems generate and authorize a crucial sense of the 'real' Diana. Finally, the essay explores how the mediation of the narrative source is a critical factor in determining the stability and signification of Diana's photographs.

Keywords

authenticity celebrity Diana image narrative source,photographs princess public persona semiotic tabloid

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Princess Diana's celebrity in freeze-frame

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