Fan Theory and Culture

Leftist Constructs

by Diana Pho

Upcoming article for Overland Magazine

"Diana M Pho on steampunk and progressive politics" "Diana M Pho on steampunk and progressive politics"

Swalwell The Early Micro User FINAL

by Melanie Swalwell

Consuming and Maintaining Difference: American Fans Resisting the Globalization of Japanese Popular Culture

by Laura Beltz Imaoka

Published in disClosure 2010, Issue 19, p73-82

The article discusses how the popularization of Japanese popular culture in the U.S. has lead many American fans to... more The article discusses how the popularization of Japanese popular culture in the U.S. has lead many American fans to question the extent to which their identities are constructed through the consumption of foreign cultural materials that are increasingly being "Americanized." It also refers to increase of sales Japanese comics in the U.S. that coincides with the heightened global exchange and interest in Japan's contemporary popular culture.

Cosplay: The Sincerest Form of Flattery

by Courtney Stoker

Published in The Guardian's Comment Is Free in 2010.

Explores the ways in which cosplay is subversive and reacts against the dominant values of the media and/or fan... more Explores the ways in which cosplay is subversive and reacts against the dominant values of the media and/or fan communities.

Gender-Swapped Doctors Are Our New Favorite Form of Doctor Who Cosplay

by Courtney Stoker

An interview of me by Charlie Jane Anders, published at i09 in 2012.

Discusses the ways in which femme Doctor cosplay in the Doctor Who fan community is both a response to a lack of... more Discusses the ways in which femme Doctor cosplay in the Doctor Who fan community is both a response to a lack of female protagonists/heroines in the show and a way to destabilize gender within the fan community.

"I Am Not A Sidekick": Femme and Crossplay Doctor Cosplay

by Courtney Stoker

Still drafting. Will be published in Queers Dig Time Lords, edited by Sigrid Ellis. Will be published by Mad Norwegian Press in March 2013.

Discusses the trend of femme and crossplay Doctors in the Doctor Who cosplay community, and suggests that these... more Discusses the trend of femme and crossplay Doctors in the Doctor Who cosplay community, and suggests that these cosplays make several rhetorical moves, including resisting a narrative in which men are heroes and women are sidekicks, destabilizing gender by visually marking femininity and masculinity as performative, and subverting a hierarchy in which things coded as "feminine" are devalued.

Fandom as industrial response: Producing identity in an independent Web series

by Aymar Jean Christian

I frame the development, production, and distribution of a Web series, "The Real Girl's Guide to Everything... more I frame the development, production, and distribution of a Web series, "The Real Girl's Guide to Everything Else," as a fan-driven response to an industrial product, "Sex and the City." As intermittent participants in the Hollywood industry, the series creators, a diverse group of lesbian, bisexual, and straight women of various ethnicities, positioned their series as a market-oriented product intended to reform the industry from its margins and participate in a growing new media economy. Expanded notions of fan production and industry are needed, as are fresh frameworks for analyzing the effects of digital distribution, especially for communities of color, of women, and of sexual minorities.

Cult Yet? The 'Miracle' of Internationalization?

by Benjamin W. L. Derhy

in Williams, R. (ed.) (forthcoming, 2013) Torchwood Declassified: Investigating Mainstream Cult Television, London: I.B. Tauris.

The sci-fi series Torchwood started on BBC3 as a small spin-off from an immensely successful programme, Doctor Who.... more The sci-fi series Torchwood started on BBC3 as a small spin-off from an immensely successful programme, Doctor Who. After discussing Torchwood's prior positioning in relation to the cult and mainstream labels, this chapter analyses the unexpectedly violent reaction of Torchwood's fans with regards to the use of American cult Television writers on the programme's latest series, and how the latter impacted on Torchwood's cult and mainstream status. By addressing the viewers' negative response towards Miracle Day, this paper exposes the opposite consequences which resulted from the latter. It finally outlines the impermanency of this situation, and the long term repercussions which may arise from it.

Megastar: Chiranjeevi and Telugu cinema after NT Rama Rao

by Srinivas SV

Chapter 1: Whistling Fans and Conditional Loyalty

Author's Note: This chapter revisits the arguments made in "Devotion and Defiance in Fan Activity."

[From the blurb] Located in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu film industry is the second largest... more [From the blurb] Located in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu film industry is the second largest in India. The Telugu film industry exhibits particular cultural traits that relate not only to filmmaking, but also to the impact of popular culture on politics.

Megastar is a book on the powerful presence of popular culture and the different ways in which our daily lives are mediated by the circulating power of film. Steering clear of formulations that have reduced a highly complex set of issues to a linear narrative, this book studies the particularities of south Indian cinema: its economics, on-screen manifestations, its consumption, and importantly, the cinema-politics association.

''No One Else Gets It': Unpopular Music and the Sustained Self'

by Scott Wilson

Delivered at The Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand (POPCAANZ) 2nd Annual Conference. Auckland, New Zealand (2011)

From SunnO))) to Justin Bieber, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy to Anthony and the Johnsons, The Shaggs to... more From SunnO))) to Justin Bieber, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy to Anthony and the Johnsons, The Shaggs to Britney,  fans of popular culture engage in exclusionary tactics and practices based on strictly enforced axiological principles, central to which is the idea that non-fans simply lack the capacity to recognise the value of the cherished object in question. Thus the unpopular excludes and avoids the popular, the mass market, in favour of specialisation and the construction of the specialist (which is not to say that specialists are unpopular).

In this paper I explore the notion of unpopular music (however
figured and defended) as a site for identification and value-generation, and pay particular attention to the ways in which perceptions of unpopularity, in all of its guises, can function as an important factor in any fan's construction of themselves as fans.   

Macbeth: Culturas populares y fandom

by Javier Lozano Delmar

Co-authored with Alberto Hermida, published in Comunicación, nº5, 2007.

Las culturas populares son el reflejo de la sociedad y de su evolución. Mediante éstas, se conserva y se transmite la... more Las culturas populares son el reflejo de la sociedad y de su evolución. Mediante éstas, se conserva y se transmite la tradición entre generaciones, adaptándose al presente y a sus nuevas formas culturales. En la actualidad, en una época de constantes avances tecnológicos y tomando Macbeth, de Shakespeare, como obra representativa, el ciberespacio y los nuevos formatos aparecen como el contexto idóneo para dicha tarea comunitaria.

Bad-Talk: Media Piracy and 'Guerrilla' Translation

by Tessa Dwyer

In Words, Images and Performances in Translation (Continuum 2012), edited by Rita Wilson and Brigid Maher

'The dark side of Naomily': Skins, fan texts and contested genres

by Deborah Hunn

Published in Continuum, Vol. 26, Issue 1, 2012.

In 2009, Series 3 of the youth-focused British TV drama Skins won widespread praise from fans and critics for its... more In 2009, Series 3 of the youth-focused British TV drama Skins won widespread praise from fans and critics for its handling of the coming out story of two teenage girls, Emily and Naomi – known in both fan and official discourse alike as ‘Naomily’. However, despite, the Skins' productions team's commitment to dialogue with their youth audience – deemed central to maintaining ‘brand values’ of authenticity and marked by the use of young scriptwriters, by attempts to draw on input from Naomily fans via interactive and collaborative opportunities, and by intertextual plays on the Naomily fan text aesthetic – fan reactions to the recently aired Series 4 have been mixed, leading to heated debate on discussion boards, (‘You've ruined it’) and resistant responses in fan texts. Focusing on genre as a contested site in representations of sexuality and desire in contemporary read/write youth culture and on the generative and dialogical potential of intersections (including collaboration and contestation) between authorized producers and fan creators, as well as the problematic power relations that underpin it, this paper critically applies Derek Johnson's recent concept of ‘fan-tagonism’ to explore the creative tensions between the Skins writing team and Naomily fans.

Steampunk: Stylish Subversion and Colonial Chic.

by Diana Pho

Co-authored with Jaymee Goh. Fashion Talks: Undressing the Power of Style Ed. Shira Tarrant & Marjorie Jolles. SUNY Press. 2012. (forthcoming)

American Classic Screen: Interviews, Profiles and Features (2011)

by Laurence Raw

Originally published in JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE 34, no. 4 (December 2011): 412-3

A review of James M. Welsh and John C. Tibbetts's three-volume anthology of material from AMERICAN CLASSIC SCREEN. A review of James M. Welsh and John C. Tibbetts's three-volume anthology of material from AMERICAN CLASSIC SCREEN.

The Repetition of Haruhi Suzumiya

by Jonathan Evans

Published in The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship, 2012

Jonathan Evans discusses how the Haruhi Suzumiya story ‘Endless Eight’ demonstrates the play of repetition and... more Jonathan Evans discusses how the Haruhi Suzumiya story ‘Endless Eight’ demonstrates the play of repetition and variation that is at the heart of adaptation and also of the fan experience.

Music fandom online: REM fans in pursuit of the ultimate first listen

by Lucy Bennett

What’s Next? Carrying on the conversations: The West Wing on Twitter

by Inger-Lise Kalviknes Bore

Co-authored with Jon Hickman for the 2011 MeCCSA conference

Online fandom has been a key focus in the wider academic field of fan studies, and there are numerous studies of how... more Online fandom has been a key focus in the wider academic field of fan studies, and there are numerous studies of how fans use social media like message boards, in order to participate in fan communities and extend their engagement with their fan objects. This paper contributes to such debates by considering the more recent phenomenon of Twitter. Focusing on a particular case study of how some fans are using this service, we will analyse how The West Wing (NBC, 1999-2006) fans are tweeting as West Wing characters, such as @Pres_Bartlet, @joshualyman and @donnalyman. Emphasising the centrality of talk in the TV series, our analysis of the Twitter material will explore how these fans perform the characters, and how they extend the original text of the show. Drawing on existing fan studies literature, we also examine this particular activity in relation to similar fan practices, such as fan role play and fan fiction, and consider how the specific characteristics of Twitter might facilitate this particular form of fan interaction.

Let Bartlet be Bartlet? The West Wing continues on Twitter

by Inger-Lise Kalviknes Bore

Co-authored with Jon Hickman. Transforming Audiences 3, 1st -2nd September 2011, London, UK.

This paper presents findings from an ongoing project that examines a particular fan community based on Twitter, where... more This paper presents findings from an ongoing project that examines a particular fan community based on Twitter, where fans are tweeting as if they were characters in the TV drama The West Wing (NBC, 1999-2006). Through accounts such as @Pres_Bartlet, @joshualyman and @donnalyman, fans interact with each other and with non-character accounts, tweeting about events from the show itself, “real world” current affairs, their ongoing personal lives, popular Twitter topics, and so on. Examining data from our own observation of this fan activity as well as interviews with the fans behind accounts for central characters, we explore three key issues: How each fan tries to shape the “Twitter voice” of their chosen character; how they manage the tension between the show’s diegesis and the “real world” through their tweets about current affairs; and what kinds of pleasures they might get from this activity. As part of our analysis, we consider how the research participants perceive their own position in the West Wing fan community, and how they see their Twitter role play in relation to other online fan activities, such as message board discussions and fan fiction writing. Through this empirical study, we aim to contribute to ongoing academic debates around media fandom by offering insights into how these Twitter users perform identities as fans, as characters and as creative producers who have gained their own fans - as evidenced by their Twitter followers.

'Most people bring their own spoons': THE ROOM's participatory audiences as comedy mediators

by Richard McCulloch

The Room (Tommy Wiseau, 2003) has developed the unenviable reputation as being one of the worst films ever made, yet... more The Room (Tommy Wiseau, 2003) has developed the unenviable reputation as being one of the worst films ever made, yet at the same time is celebrated by ‘fans’ who take considerable pleasure from its perceived ineptitude. Considerable media attention has also been afforded to the film’s participatory theatrical screenings, which typically feature constant heckling, chants, and the throwing of plastic spoons.

Through the analysis of the film’s British audiences (in the form of surveys, interviews, observation and autoethnography), this article argues that The Room demonstrates the impact of audience participation on a film’s reception, which in this case transforms an ostensible drama into a comedy experience. These audiences function as temporary communities that encourage the search for humour in ‘badness’, creating a cycle of comedy mediation and verification that affirms the interpretive competence of all attendees.

The article begins to theorise the previously underdeveloped concept of ‘so bad it’s good’ by drawing a link between comedy and cult media audiences, as well as exploring the social functions of comedy as they relate to cultural texts.