Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Shared Narratives: Intermediality in Fandom
- 2 Fan Membership: Traditional and Digital Fieldwork
- 3 Naturalizing Sherlock: Dutch Fans Interpret the Famous Detective
- 4 Queer Teen Drama: Rewriting and Narrative Closure in Glee Fan Fiction
- 5 Transmedia Play: Approaching the Possible Worlds of Firefly
- 6 Embodied Characters: The Affective Process of Cosplay
- 7 Conclusion: Prospects for Fan Studies
- Bibliography of Fan Works
- Index
1 - Shared Narratives: Intermediality in Fandom
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Shared Narratives: Intermediality in Fandom
- 2 Fan Membership: Traditional and Digital Fieldwork
- 3 Naturalizing Sherlock: Dutch Fans Interpret the Famous Detective
- 4 Queer Teen Drama: Rewriting and Narrative Closure in Glee Fan Fiction
- 5 Transmedia Play: Approaching the Possible Worlds of Firefly
- 6 Embodied Characters: The Affective Process of Cosplay
- 7 Conclusion: Prospects for Fan Studies
- Bibliography of Fan Works
- Index
Summary
Abstract
Fandom is a rich and vibrant culture of rewriting – a formation of media spaces and audiences that come together online and off-line. In this introduction chapter, I provide a short overview of fandom and diverse fan activities. These practices have been studied in the interdisciplinary field of fan studies, also known as fandom studies. I provide a short overview of the field, its history, and state-of-the-art studies. Finally, I propose a theoretical model that can be used to study fan practices, with attention to their media relationships (their inter/transmediality), affect, characters, and worlds within the productive space of fan practices. This model is not limited to understanding fan activities, but highlights properties that are increasingly important in the analysis of any media text.
Keywords: Fandom, intermediality, transmediality, affect
Introduction
Whenever I wonder what being or becoming a fan means, I think about the first time that I attended a convention for Japanese popular culture. I had been a fan for years and subscribed to online forums to discuss manga (Japanese comics) and anime (Japanese cartoons). Still, I only had a handful of off-line friends who understood how much this fiction actually meant to me. When I was eighteen, I travelled across the country to a weekend-long event where fans met up to enjoy Japanese popular culture. This convention, Animecon (2005), was held in a hotel, and nearly one thousand people supposedly attended as visitors and volunteers.
My best friend had sewn me an outfit as Aerith, a fictional character from a game that I liked (Final Fantasy VII) and had told me that many other attendees would also be dressed up. I knew that many fans engaged in different creative hobbies, such as sewing or writing, and I showcased my own drawings of Final Fantasy characters on different Internet sites as well. Japanese popular culture inspired young fans like me to engage in arts and crafts. I heard that these practices were motivated at the convention through costume competitions, workshops, and much more. Still, wearing a costume of one of my favorite characters seemed somehow odd; then again, the whole convention seemed odd. My friend described it as a type of Disneyland where fiction would be all around you. We had made a little group of Final Fantasy characters with whom we would compete in the costume competition and had practiced weeks before.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Productive FandomIntermediality and Affective Reception in Fan Cultures, pp. 11 - 46Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2018
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