The Art of Self Invention by Joanne Finkelstein - 9781845113964

The Art of Self InventionImage and Identity in Popular Visual Culture\nAuthor(s): Joanne Finkelstein\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, United Kingdom\nImprint: I.B. Tauris\nISBN-13: 9781845113964, 978-1845113964\nSynopsis\nBoth an exploration of the ways in which we fashion our public identity and a manual of modern sociability, this lively and readable book explores the techniques we use to present ourselves to the world: body language, tone of voice, manners, demeanour, 'personality' and personal style. Drawing on historical commentators from Castiglione to Machiavelli, and from Marcel Mauss to Roland Barthes, Joanne Finkelstein looks to popular visual culture, including Hollywood film and makeover TV, to show how it provides blueprints for the successful construction of 'persona'. She also discusses the role of fashion and of status symbols and how advertising sells these to us in our never ending quest for social mobility. Finkelstein's interest here is no.