The mass media make it possible for fame to be enhanced and transformed posthumously. What does it mean to fans when a celebrity dies, and how can death change the way that celebrities are perceived and celebrated? How do we mourn and remember? What can different forms of communication reveal about the role of media in our lives? Through a provocative look at the lives and legacy of popular musicians from Elvis to Tupac and from Louis Prima to John Lennon, Afterlife as Afterimage analyzes the process of posthumous fame to give us new insights into the consequences of mediation, and it illuminates the complex nature of fandom, community formation, and identity construction. Acknowledgments xi In Memoriam xiii JULIE ANDSAGER Introduction-On Fandom, Celebrity, and Mediation: Posthumous Possibilities xv JOLI JENSEN Part I. Fans and the Production of Posthumous Fame Chapter One: Better Off Dead: Or, Making It the Hard Way 3(14) STEVE JONES Chapter Two: Altared Sites: Celebrity Webshrines as Shared Mourning 17(14) JULIE L. ANDSAGER Chapter Three: Flaunting It: Style, Identity, and the Social Construction of Elvis Fandom 31(30) VAN M. CAGLE Chapter Four: Elvis Forever 61(20) ERIKA DOSS Part 2. Mediating Meanings: Case Studies in Posthumous Celebrity Chapter Five: Commemoration as Crossover: Remembering Selena 81(16) MARY C. BELTRÁN Chapter Six: Karen: The Hagiographic Impulse Anorexia in the Public Memory of a Pop Star 97(24) PEGGY J. BOWERS AND STEPHANIE HOUSTON GREY Chapter Seven: Posthumous Patsy Clines: Constructions of Identity in Hillbilly Heaven 121(22) JOLI JENSEN Chapter Eight: Collectively Remembering Tupac: The Narrative Mediation of Current Events, Cultural Histories, and Social Identities 143(28) GEORGE KAMBERELIS AND GREG DIMITRIADIS Chapter Nine: Who Owns Him?: The Debate on John Lennon 171(20) JANNE MAKELA Chapter Ten: Taming the Wildest: What We've Made of Louis Prima 191(18) JOHN J. PAULY Chapter Eleven: The Strange Career of Robert Johnson's Records 209(28) ERIC W. ROTHENBUHLER Part 3. Technology, Process, and Immortality Chapter Twelve: A Career in Music: From Obscurity to Immortality 237(16) MARKO AHO Chapter Thirteen: Dead Rock Stars 1900 253(16) JONATHAN STERNE Conclusion: Echo Homo 269(8) STEVE JONES List of Contributors 277(4) Index 281