From the literary field to reality TV: the perils of downward celebrity migration

Abstract

This article explores ‘downward celebrity migration’, that is, when a celebrity enters a field that is less legitimate than their field of origin. It does so by studying the case of Lucía Etxebarria, a Spanish literary celebrity who participated in a celebrity reality TV show (Campamento de Verano (‘Summer Camp’)) in 2013. Using Bourdieu’s concepts of field and capital, this article analyses the ambiguous hierarchical position that Etxebarria occupied in the programme and how she was evaluated according to the specific rules of reality TV: authenticity, ordinariness, performance and submission to the programme’s authority. Etxebarria’s presence in the programme stirred up a heated debate about social, cultural and fame hierarchies, and she became the target of attacks that tried to undermine her symbolic capital through personal humiliation.