Transformative Works and Cultures - TWC (Organization for Transformative Works)
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852 research outputs found
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Podfic: Queer structures of sound
No full textPodfic is the fan practice of reading fan fiction aloud and sharing recordings with other fans. Podfic highlights how slash fan spaces are structurally queer, resulting in both pleasure and discomfort for various participants. The numerous identities involved in creating, sharing, and consuming podfic—that of the podficcer, the listener, and the characters in the stories—create layers of queer possibility. Podfic encourages the repetition of oblique lines of desire that refuse heteronormativity and immutable, binary gender. Listeners use podfic to build queer soundscapes, using the queer noise of podfic to drown out the dull normalcy of activities like commuting and household chores, and to create a sense of (queer, fannish) connection and community between themselves, the performer, and other listeners. Additionally, "not safe for work, don't play this out loud" warnings on podfic demonstrate how fans negotiate what is and is not appropriate for public spaces and nonprivate listening, particularly in regard to explicit queer sexuality. Podfic enhances and magnifies our understanding of how queerness appears and functions among fans, fan texts, and fan practices; it also reaffirms the diversity of genders at play in these fan spaces
Revisiting parasocial theory in fan studies: Pathological or (path)illogical?
No full textParasocial theory is not currently in favor within fan studies because it is seen as depicting fan behavior as pathological. However, an examination of the original text and its modern interpretations reveals the true, neutral image of fans that parasocial theory portrays, which allows it to be applied to fan communities and fan works. Accordingly, these applications are also discussed, with an emphasis on the K-pop industry, where the theory is particularly relevant
The dysphoric body politic, or Seizing the means of imagination
No full textAlthough escapism has been used pejoratively in describing fandom, it might be reframed as a reaction to untenable external circumstances. This reformulation of escapism is a starting point for examining how fan fiction is a political practice. In light of the political upheaval in the United States as well as the existential threat of climate change, this is a topical, even urgent, collective project for producing survivable conditions. Fan fiction uniquely diagnoses and imagines alternatives to oppressive political conditions. The lens of political dysphoria, adapted from critical transgender studies and used here to describe the dissonance between dominant political structures and desiring subjects, permits exploration of how fan fiction enables subjects to acknowledge oppressive political conditions, engage in coalitional rebellion, and reimagine societal structures for collective liberation
Automating fandom: Social bots, music celebrity, and identity online
No full textIn an analysis of the intersection of media and politics through the increased presence of social bots on social media platforms like Twitter, it becomes evident that years before internet bots were used for geopolitical cyberconflict, fan communities online were already subject to these forces in driving user engagement for music brands and celebrities. Fan scholars must interrogate the presence of these bot networks for their impact on online fan cultural activity
Lesbian fandom remakes the boy band
No full textLesbians and other queer women are typically absent from theorizations of boy band fandom even though boy bands often have sizable lesbian fan bases. Lesbian fandom of the British–Irish boy band One Direction congregated primarily on Tumblr; this fandom constituted a queer community space that exposed the boy band as a site of lesbian erotic and creative energy. One manifestation of lesbian One Direction fandom was the drag king performance group known as Every Direction, which maintained an active Tumblr page in addition to performing live drag king renditions of popular One Direction songs. Interviews with the group's members, along with a content analysis of lesbian Tumblr fandom of One Direction, illuminate the significant creative output of this understudied fan community. This phenomenon is placed into conversation with the lesbian feminist–affiliated Women's Music Movement of the 1970s, which had a lasting impact on popular conceptions of lesbian musical preferences in the United States. I argue that lesbian One Direction fandom constitutes a contemporary queer political intervention that reworks lesbian feminist political tactics and priorities. This data acts as a record of the lesbian One Direction fan community that congregated on Tumblr during the band's heyday, as well as an intervention in scholarly theorizations of lesbian fans and fan practices
Diving into the lacuna: Fan studies, methodologies, and mending the gaps
No full textWith its autoethnographic tradition, fan studies research sometimes draws from similar intellectual and emotional impulses as the creation of fan works themselves, namely the perception of a lack and the need to repair that gap. Likewise, methodologies can intentionally or inadvertently respond to gaps in the scholarship
The affective labor of fan studies: A pedagogical problem in two parts
No full textThis work describes the iterative redesign of a single introductory fan studies course over several years. The exigencies of teaching fandom tactics, combined with institutional uptake of affective labor, affect students' learning. Methods of addressing these issues in the next iteration of the course are contemplated
Toward some fanons of fan studies
No full textEditorial for guest-edited issue, "Fan Studies Methodologies," Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 33 (June 15, 2020)
Applying Brenda Dervin's sense-making methodology to fan studies
No full textCommunication scholar Brenda Dervin created sense-making methodology (SMM), an approach for conducting interviews that draws on metatheoretical concepts such as hermeneutics, phenomenology, and the humanistic approach to psychology. Since its formulation, SMM has been utilized across different disciplines through the development of interview protocols for both one-on-one interviews and focus groups. Among these studies are those that focus on people's engagement with media products or with each other in relation to media products. These SMM audience and reception studies demonstrate that the methodology can be useful for studying fans by bringing a more systematic, and thus quantifiable, approach to a phenomenological, interpretive study of fan behavior, be it mental, emotional, physical, or social. SMM would allow for studies that analyze how fans make sense of a situation involving their fandom and fan identity. After explaining what SMM is and how it has been used to study fans, a case study demonstrates how SMM may suggest a way to define being a fan and applying the concept of fandom beyond the traditional domains of sports, media, and popular culture