On Divas: Persona, Pleasure, Power

A critic’s notebook on sparkle and spectacle. An Atlantic Edition, featuring long-form journalism by Atlantic writers, drawn from contemporary articles or classic storytelling from the magazine’s 165-year archive.

A collection of essays on musicians, celebrities, and aesthetic movements and moments that, taken together, characterizes the often used, yet widely misunderstood term diva. On Divas offers readers an original understanding of an age-old phenomenon by drawing together figures as diverse as Beyoncé, Björk, and Donald Trump. With keen insight and genuine enthusiasm, Spencer Kornhaber illustrates how willfulness, pleasure, spectacular self-involvement, and the public’s blend of adoration and resentment define divadom.