Transformative Works and Cultures - TWC (Organization for Transformative Works)
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852 research outputs found
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Face and politeness in fandom in China
No full textFace and politeness in fandom in the People's Republic of China are driven by a dominating focus on rank, which entails a prodigious amount of social media interaction, primarily occurring as posts and comments on the microblogging website Weibo. When interacting with their fellows in the same fandom, fans refer to a collective identity in order to maintain or enhance rapport with their interlocutors. Fan members use deliberately opaque and alien terminology for their in-group discussions, intertwining their fandom's discourse with that of their idols' fans and thereby intertwining notions of face. To further differentiate their fan base from other counterparts, thus reinforcing their collective identity as a distinctive community, fans use neologisms that are exclusive to their own fan space, thereby creating unconventional and discursive strategies of politeness similar to mock politeness. When preserving face, expressing politeness, and maintaining rapport with fellow fans, fans use carefully selected semantic strategies that act as epistemic stance markers. When interacting with idols, fans use self-referential terms that show politeness, giving face to idols and enhancing rapport between idols and fans
Broadway YouTubers and musical theater fandom
No full textAn analysis of the use of visuals to express ideas in a form that has much in common with the medium being studied
Zankie, queerbaiting, and performative rhetorics of bisexuality
No full textIn 2014, two contestants on Big Brother (CBS), Frankie Grande and Zach Rance, began a showmance (ship name: Zankie). The presence of two men in a showmance, only one of whom was openly queer before filming, created ample conversation among fans and contestants about Rance's sexual orientation, as he seemed to be undergoing a personal bi-awakening narrative on live TV. The rhetorics of reality TV paint this both as a sincere struggle and as a joking game strategy, which occasions an overdetermined scrutiny of whether Rance is really bisexual or if he is queerbaiting the audience. Rance's performance of self on the show relies on queerbaiting, but he also deploys rhetoric surrounding bisexuality that allows him to participate in a same-sex showmance while still claiming heterosexuality outside the context of the show. His contradictory articulations of identity and desire reinforce stereotypes about bisexuals while also calling into question the heteronormative assumptions behind the showmance label
Transcultural fan studies in practice: A conversation
No full textAt the end of 2018, a group of fan scholars led by Lori Morimoto journeyed to Japan for a fan studies field trip. The purpose was multifaceted: to speak at a symposium on transcultural popular culture; to bring together fans and fandom studies from both sides of the Pacific; and to augment their classrooms with practical experience. Eight participants share their experiences and reflect on what it means to be a transcultural fan scholar at the dawning of the 2020s
Wealth and heteronormative romance tropes in Harry Potter fan fiction
No full textAnalysis of canon/fanon cocreation focusing on the fetishization of extreme wealth in the fanon genre of "Pureblood for a Day" fic
"Everybody hurts: Transitions, endings, and resurrections in fan cultures," ed. Rebecca Williams
No full textReview of Rebecca Williams, editor. Everybody hurts: Transitions, endings, and resurrections in fan cultures. Ames: University of Iowa Press, 2018, paperback 80 ISBN 9781609385644
Fan studies pedagogies
No full textEditorial to "Fan Studies Pedagogies," edited by Paul Booth and Regina Yung Lee, special issue, Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 35 (March 15, 2021)
Donnie Yen's star persona in amateur-produced videos on YouTube
No full textAmateur-produced, web-based videos have become an emergent locus of emulating, multiplying, and reinventing the appeal of martial arts stars, which was once a product of professionals of industrial mechanism. The constellation of user-generated practices on platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, Wikipedia, and Facebook that depend on amateur content has become a vital force driving popular construction that blurs the line between the professional and the amateur. Celebrated transnational Chinese actor Donnie Yen, who has gained huge fame thanks to his work in martial arts hits, was cast in the Star Wars feature Rogue One (2016). An analysis of two videos on YouTube that (re)narrativize Yen's persona in Rogue One shows how video makers working outside the film industry open up new aspects of articulating and understanding the star. Amateur video producers unsettle Yen's status, which is principally anchored on his martial authenticity and acrobatic skills, by either mixing the active body with other generic components like sci-fi or virtualizing the warrior figure in other media contexts, such as video games and virtual reality. The outcome is a composite, multidirectional intertext that engenders novel dimensions of a star text, negotiating and refashioning the martial arts personality. Digital creative texts have discursive power that changes and challenges the industrial structure of cultural production in a volatile media environment
Fans of color, fandoms of color
No full textEditorial for guest-edited issue, "Fans of Color, Fandoms of Color," Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 29 (March 15, 2019)
Not King Alfred’s Brexit
No full textA close reading of two The Last Kingdom (2015–) fan fics hashtagged #NotMyBrexit, "One England" by BigHeartBigFart and "Under One Kingdom" by Honiejar (both 2019), shows that both authors use the (mediated character of) real-world King Alfred of Wessex (849–899) to comment on the Brexit transitional era. The authors mix contemporary references with historical associations to advocate for unity