Transformative Works and Cultures - TWC (Organization for Transformative Works)
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(Re)examining the attitudes of comic book store patrons
No full textAs digital comic book consumption continues to rise in popularity, the comic book community appears conflicted over the effects that digital scans have on the meaning of collecting and reading comic books. Historically, comic ownership served as the locus of comic fan social capital; will digital scans hold the same cultural capital as printed books? And does postpurchased digital scan dissemination primarily hurt copyright holders through lost sales, or does it help through social promotion? Building on an analysis of fan attitudes toward digital comic book texts, we seek to account for the limitations of locality by surveying the attitudes of comic book store patrons concerning their attitudes toward physical and digital comic book texts
Finding Poland: Negotiating the local and the global and the semiperipheral identity of Polish SF&F fandom
No full textAn analysis of Polish science fiction, fantasy, and role-playing game fandom brings to the fore problems of Polish identity and patriotism, as well as views on Polish fandom as a specific local phenomenon and as a part of global pop culture. Polish fandom may be framed as a semiperipheral culture, with fans expressing Polish identity and engaging in strategies of negotiating the global and the local
The remediation of the fan convention: Understanding the emerging genre of cosplay music videos
No full textThrough cosplay (costume play), fans perform existing fictional characters in self-created costumes, thereby enriching and extending popular narratives. Cosplay is an understudied form of appropriation that transforms and actualizes an existing story or game in close connection to the fan community and the fan's own identity. Although the costume can be experienced firsthand at convention sites, it is also remediated in photography, thereby extending its potential audience and performative possibilities. In the rich emerging genre of cosplay music videos, commonly shot and produced at convention sites, fans juxtapose different cosplayers and texts. Informed by work on other fan videos, such as machinima, I propose a reading of a selected corpus of videos to analyze the dynamics of costume culture as it transcends the convention grounds
Affective fan experiences of Lady Gaga
No full textThe fandom of Lady Gaga is, like other fandoms, defined by its affective attachment to the object of fandom. However, if one asks the fans of Gaga why she is more appealing than other stars, they would be likely to highlight the personal investment and attachment of Lady Gaga herself and thus the mutuality of the relation. In order to examine this relation, which is experienced as equal despite being patently unbalanced, I investigate affective states of fandom through the lens of the experience economy on the levels of staging, co-creation, and self-direction in the experience of Lady Gaga and argue that authenticity, interaction, and empowerment are key elements of the fandom in question. Also, I discuss the personal investments of the fans and argue that the unwritten rules and norms of fandoms, as well as the hunt for positive affect, can trigger states of negative affect. The article is based on online as well as off-line ethnography
Transnationalism, localization, and translation in European fandom: Fan studies as global media and audience studies
No full textEditorial for TWC No. 19, "European Fans and European Fan Objects: Localization and Translation.
Representation of American versus non-American fans in Baillie Walsh's "Springsteen & I"
No full textThis article explores the representation of American versus non-American fans in Baillie Walsh's 2013 crowd/fan-sourced documentary Springsteen & I. The film—as much as it was fed by a wide and international range of fan-produced material—ultimately produced and presented one particular type of fan as privileged and appropriate to speak for all: the American Springsteen fan. The film does so in three main ways: by presenting American fans as more authentically connected to Springsteen's language and lyrics (they truly "understand" his work); by showing that American fans relate to Springsteen's world and themes in more authentic ways; and by presenting American fans as experiencing a better, closer, more authentic Springsteen when seeing him perform live. The essay thus reexamines fan stereotyping from the perspective of national identity. It aims to rearticulate the necessity of the vigilance and scrutiny of crowd-sourced fan texts because they have profound effects on how fans are taught to view themselves in and by the media
Bound princes and monogamy warnings: "Harry Potter," slash, and queer performance in LiveJournal communities
No full textMedia fans often refer to their texts, practices, productions, and selves as works in progress—unfinished, in between, and transformative. This article applies theoretical models of performance to the fannish practice of crafting slash fan fiction within LiveJournal communities. By examining the content and form of the fiction itself, its mode of production, and fannish interactions, this paper discusses fan practices as opportunities for media fans to engage in individual and collective performances that negotiate hegemonic norms of gender and sexuality. These negotiations often illustrate a disconnect between social conditioning and female desire in heteronormative and patriarchal culture, and demonstrate the utility of theories of performance in studying individual and collective fannish engagement with texts as a means of intervening in the world
Works in progress
No full textThis issue showcases the depth and breadth of fan studies and promises the continuation of an already thriving interdisciplinary subfield. It is so much more than we ever could have hoped a decade ago
Case study of French and Spanish fan reception of "Game of Thrones"
No full textThe reception of the American TV show Game of Thrones (2011–) by French and Spanish fans and nonfans is addressed via a qualitative methodology, the goal of which is to understand how European viewers perceive themselves as fans and what it means for them to be fans. Analysis of characteristics of a specifically European reception helps us learn what fan studies tell us about fans and what fans really think about fandoms
Interview with Hello Earth Productions
No full textInterview with Joy DeLyria and Kris Hambrick, cofounders of Hello Earth Productions, a grassroots, community-based theater company in Seattle, Washington