Elvis Culture: Fans, Faith, and Image (Hardcover)

by Erika Lee Doss (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
If Elvis is dead, why does his image still permeate American culture, from postage stamps to Vegas stage shows? In her intelligent cultural analysis of one of this century's most revered, reviled and reviewed fan phenomena, Doss (Director of the University of Colorado at Boulder American Studies program) examines Elvis's enduring posthumous presence, among his unprecedented legions of fans as well as in the larger society that often looks askance at their fervent devotion. Exploring Elvis's multifaceted appeal, Doss argues convincingly that he crossed more than just musical boundaries, embodying the heady dangers of sexual ambiguity, racial transgression and even tackiness. Today, Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. owns and guards Elvis's "official" image, policing illicit and improper usage: the group outlawed black velvet paintings in 1995 and obtained a cease-and-desist order to prevent artist and devotee Joni Mabe from making buttons featuring "Elvis's Hair." Doss evinces an anthropologist's detailed interest in the permutations of Elvis culture, from the MacLeod family's cheerful GracelandToo, a two-story tribute to Elvis paraphernalia, to Kiki Apostolakos's shrine to her spiritual relationship with the KingAbut the author is intrigued by more than just the artifacts and rituals. Her most striking insight is that Elvis's embodiment of contradictions allows aficionados and acolytes to engage in the ongoing process of creating Elvis's image, whatever Elvis Inc. may have to say. Doss's work is equally enjoyable for its considered analysis of fandom as for its vast catalogue of ways that fans honor their hero. The King may be dead, but his image is alive and well.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Twenty years after his death, Elvis Presley is still an American icon and shows no signs of flagging. Over a dozen new books about the King were published in 1998, and 60,000 fans show up at Graceland during Elvis week. Doss (Spirit Poles & Flying Pigs: Public Art and Cultural Democracy in American Communities, Smithsonian, 1995) reveals the forces behind this obsession with the singer/actor whose image graces everything from stamps to car deodorizers. Through interviews with fans worldwide, Doss answers the question, Why Elvis? and examines the contradictory images of Elvis as idealized, rags-to-riches saint and transgendered erotic idol. Concluding that the phenomenon is a result both of the giant corporation that controls Elviss legacy and the fans who remake it to suit their own fantasies, Doss creates a very readable discussion of the origins and purposes of the popular image in society. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.Kelli N. Perkins, Herrick P.L., Holland,
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Kansas; illustrated edition edition (April 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0700609482
• ISBN-13: 978-0700609482
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,873,917 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Iconic Status, June 27, 2002

By	James Crews Jr. (Saint Louis, MO United States) - See all my reviews

The cover of Erika Doss's invaluable guide to how one itty bitty rock legend became the inimitable, unquestionable image he is today tells it all. Elvis on a stamp, on envelopes and mail sent daily throughout the United States? Yep, he's not just a singer anymore, as Doss points out in her exhaustive search for the how's and why's of Elvis's rise to status of cultural icon, to the imagistic equivalent of Jesus on the cross. Elvis is, in fact, more than just an image too, she points out; he's a corporation.

Doss's book was a revelation of sorts, close to the epiphany she recounts earlier on, realizing that people have come to worship Elvis as wholeheartedly as they do any god or cult leader. Doss also examines the elements of our own culture, which pave the way for such a dramatic recreation of image in this age of media saturation. She talks about the tight rein Priscilla Presley and Elvis Presley Enterprises have kept on what they will allow his image and name to grace. Also outlining the myths involved in such a recreation, Doss shows us just how much we can trust the products and decisions of corporations whose inherent goal is pretty apparent: more and more profit.

_Elvis Culture_ also acknowledges the fans, perhaps the true creators of the Elvis image. Doss tells us about "Graceland Too" whose owner is devoted to the collecting of "Elvis stuff." She profiles an artist who channels her love for Elvis into sometimes room-size installations of kitschy devotion to the King, and another woman who has made (and charges no admission to see) a very miniature version of Presley's Memphis mansion.

Nowhere in the book, however, does Erika Doss ignore what such behavior suggests about us as a society. Whether we take the Graceland tour and support a multi-million dollar company committed to supposedly "preserving" the Presley name, or trust the fans to the more pure, downhome maintenance of Elvis's image,we must acknowledge that all of these people involved in Elvis culture are products of American society. Submission to the corporation exemplifies our culture's handing itself over to the Starbuck's and Wal-marts of the world, and the fans' collection perhaps even further shows America's servitude to a relentless materialism. Doss knows this, and she does a great job examining all of the different aspects of culture Elvis Presley and his image have invaded, and even more importantly perhaps, why we have let them.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Good Research, December 16, 2008

By	The Biggest "book worm 1212" (notre dame, IN) - See all my reviews

All,

I am an American Studies major at the University of Notre Dame and have had the most unpleasant experience with Professor Doss as an inapt professor and writer. The class that I have completed was Introduction to American Studies and one of the assigned readings was her own book "Elvis Culture." It stands testament to her inability to formulate cohesive arguments which tend to tangent off on to mildly relevant topics, which she animatedly views as the only logical way to make sense of topics which truly have no correct solution. This often leaves one with the sense that she must have done extensive research on American pop culture, and that she now loves her own opinions on subjective topics. This is a bad buy / author / class, and she has single handedly made me want to change my major.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive word on Elvis fan-dom, May 26, 1999

By A Customer

Doss's book is full of pleasure even as it takes on the question of Elvis's significance as a sort of secular religious figure. Doss interviewed and questionnaired hundreds or maybe thousands of hardcore fans, and she's listened carefully to them. The result is a work that's a pleasure to read and revelatory of contemporary life at the same time. If you wonder what's going on with American culture at the end of the millennium, Doss will give you some real insights.