Film and Screen Studies Professor Authors Article on the Phenomenon of Chappell Roan

Professor of Film and Screen Studies Catherine Zimmer, PhD, authored an article in Avidly (a channel of the LA Review of Books) titled “A Feminomenology of Chappell Roan,” in which she discussed the “phenomenon” of the singer-songwriter, which includes, among other things, “an earnest and passionate longing for the analog,” something Zimmer feels the artist herself embodies.

In Zimmer’s view, Roan’s work is not necessarily about acoustic instrumentation, and it goes beyond nostalgia. It is “inhabitable” and “relational.”

She said, “Analog, in this instance, signals a certain type of materiality and presence. But the self-evidence of the analog includes constant reference to itself within history, within culture, within what phenomenology—a field of philosophy most simply defined by the notion that existence is always situated and relational—would call a ‘lifeworld.’

The 'phenomenon' of Chappell Roan is one that should be recognized as such because she embodies her own talent so well at the same time that it is clear that she is a canvas for performative transformation, cultural interaction, and productive, communal spectatorship.”