Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World

Published by New York University Press 2007

Fandom

Identities and Communities in a Mediated World

Edited by: Jonathan Gray , C. Lee Harrington and Cornel Sandvoss

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814743713.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

We are all fans. Whether we log on to Web sites to scrutinize the latest plot turns in Lost, “stalk” our favorite celebrities on Gawker, attend gaming conventions, or simply wait with bated breath for the newest Harry Potter novel—each of us is a fan. Fandom extends beyond television and film to literature, opera, sports, and pop music, and encompasses both high and low culture.
Fandom brings together leading scholars to examine fans, their practices, and their favorite texts. This unparalleled selection of original essays examines instances across the spectrum of modern cultural consumption from Karl Marx to Paris Hilton, Buffy the Vampire Slayer to backyard wrestling, Bach fugues to Bollywood cinema¸ and nineteenth-century concert halls to computer gaming. Contributors examine fans of high cultural texts and genres, the spaces of fandom, fandom around the globe, the impact of new technologies on fandom, and the legal and historical contexts of fan activity. Fandom is key to understanding modern life in our increasingly mediated and globalized world.

Author / Editor information

Gray Jonathan :

Jonathan Gray is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Television Entertainment, Television Studies (with Amanda D. Lotz), Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other Media Paratexts, and Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality.Harrington C. Lee :

C. Lee Harrington is Professor of Sociology at Miami University. She is the author (with Denise D. Bielby) of Soap Fans (1995) and Global TV (2008).Sandvoss Cornel :

Cornel Sandvoss is Professor of Media and Journalism and co-founding Director of Centre of Participatory Culture at the University of Huddersfield.

Reviews

Thought-provoking. . . . Well-selected and challenging collection.

Jason Mittell,Middlebury College:
Fandom pushes the boundaries of fan studies in bold directions, incorporating high culture fandoms, global fan cultures, fan technologies, and antagonistic anti-fandom, while rethinking the core tenets of fan studies concerning aesthetics, place, intellectual property, and interpretive communitiesall presented with a lively, accessible, and engaging writing style.

One of the best aspects of the text is the way that the contributors do not merely typecast fans as those interested in modern and popular culture, but also examine fans of mediums typically considered ‘high culture.’ This makes the book much friendlier to pop-culture fans, whose practices are typically considered lowbrow and fanatical when compared to someone who holds season tickets to the opera or visits an art gallery every weekend. As a fan, it’s nice to see that the behavior is not reduced to unnecessary fanaticism and is examined on a more subjective level.

Fandom explores the multidimensional aspects of the fascination, enthrallment, obsession that fans have with their various interests.

Highly recommended.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction: Why Study Fans? Jonathan Gray, Cornel Sandvoss and C. Lee Harrington Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I Fan Texts: From Aesthetic to Legal Judgments
1 The Death of the Reader? Literary Theory and the Study of Texts in Popular Culture Cornel Sandvoss Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
2 Media Academics as Media Audiences Aesthetic Judgments in Media and Cultural Studies Matt Hills Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
3 Yoko in Cyberspace with Beatles Fans: Gender and the Re-Creation of Popular Mythology Christine Scodari Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	48
4 Copyright Law, Fan Practices, and the Rights of the Author Rebecca Tushnet Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	60
Part II Beyond Pop Culture: Fandom from News to High Culture
5 The News: You Gotta Love It Jonathan Gray Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	73
6 The Fans of Cultural Theory Alan McKee Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
7 Bachies, Bardies, Trekkies, and Sherlockians Roberta Pearson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	98
8 Fans of Chekhov Re-Approaching “High Culture” John Tulloch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	110
Part III Spaces of Fandom: From Place to Performance
9 Place, Elective Belonging, and the Diffused Audience Brian Longhurst, Gaynor Bagnall and Mike Savage Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
10 On the Set of The Sopranos “Inside” a Fan’s Construction of Nearness Nick Couldry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
11 A Sort of Homecoming: Fan Viewing and Symbolic Pilgrimage Will Brooker Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
12 From Smart Fan to Backyard Wrestler: Performance, Context, and Aesthetic Violence Lawrence B. McBride and S. Elizabeth Bird Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Part IV Fan Audiences Worldwide From the Global to the Local
13 Global Fandom/Global Fan Studies C. Lee Harrington and Denise D. Bielby Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
14 Between Rowdies and Rasikas: Rethinking Fan Activity in Indian Film Culture Aswin Punathambekar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198
15 Beyond Kung-Fu and Violence: Locating East Asian Cinema Fandom Bertha Chin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	210
16 Han Suk-kyu and the Gendered Cultural Economy of Stardom and Fandom Anne Ciecko and Hunju Lee Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	220
Part V Shifting Contexts, Changing Fan Cultures From Concert Halls to Console Games
17 Loving Music Listeners, Entertainments, and the Origins of Music Fandom in Nineteenth-Century America Daniel Cavicchi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
18 Girls Allowed? The Marginalization of Female Sport Fans Victoria K. Gosling Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	250
19 Customer Relationship Management: Automating Fandom in Music Communities Tom McCourt and Patrick Burkart Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
20 Playing the Game: Performance in Digital Game Audiences Garry Crawford and Jason Rutter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271
Part VI Fans and Anti-Fans: From Love to Hate
21 Fan-tagonism: Factions, Institutions, and Constitutive Hegemonies of Fandom Derek Johnson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	283
22 Untidy: Fan Response to the Soiling of Martha Stewart’s Spotless Image Melissa A. Click Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	301
23 The Anti-Fan within the Fan: Awe and Envy in Sport Fandom Vivi Theodoropoulou Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	316
24 A Vacancy at the Paris Hilton Jeffrey Sconce Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	328
25 The Other Side of Fandom: Anti-Fans, Non-Fans, and the Hurts of History Diane F. Alters Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	344
26 Afterword: The Future of Fandom Henry Jenkins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	357
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	365
About the Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	393
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	399

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Keywords: Fandom; understanding; modern; life; increasingly; mediated; globalized; world

eBook

Published: June 1, 2007
ISBN: 9780814743713