Liam Burke
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628462036
- eISBN:
- 9781626745193
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628462036.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
Comic book fandom has long been a participatory culture. As comic book characters made the transition to film, the fans, eschewing media boundaries, began effectively applying their collaborative ...
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Comic book fandom has long been a participatory culture. As comic book characters made the transition to film, the fans, eschewing media boundaries, began effectively applying their collaborative traditions to cinema. This process became more intensive and far-reaching in the digital age. Consequently, filmmakers, many of whom initially adopted a protectionist stance, have chosen to (or been forced to) recognize the merits of comic book publishing practices. In recent years, this has led to a refocusing of marketing campaigns, the development of new production practices, greater fidelity between texts, as well as a number of other strategies that position fans at the center of comic book adaptation production.Less
Comic book fandom has long been a participatory culture. As comic book characters made the transition to film, the fans, eschewing media boundaries, began effectively applying their collaborative traditions to cinema. This process became more intensive and far-reaching in the digital age. Consequently, filmmakers, many of whom initially adopted a protectionist stance, have chosen to (or been forced to) recognize the merits of comic book publishing practices. In recent years, this has led to a refocusing of marketing campaigns, the development of new production practices, greater fidelity between texts, as well as a number of other strategies that position fans at the center of comic book adaptation production.
Kevin Patrick
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628462340
- eISBN:
- 9781626746787
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628462340.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
The Phantom (1996) was a feature-film adaptation of the American comic strip character today regarded as a forerunner of the superhero. However, The Phantom film was an American box-office failure ...
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The Phantom (1996) was a feature-film adaptation of the American comic strip character today regarded as a forerunner of the superhero. However, The Phantom film was an American box-office failure and is routinely overlooked in academic studies of the ‘comic-book movie’. By contrast, The Phantom was a commercial success in Australia, ranking amongst the Top-5 films upon its cinema release and, therefore, this chapter investigates The Phantom’s localized success. The Phantom film provides the basis of a broader inquiry into the global circulation of the superhero phenomenon beyond its American ‘homeland’ by examining the film’s industrial production and cultural reception in Australia, the where character has paradoxically become an ‘indigenous’ superhero. Moreover, it explores how The Phantom’s embodiment of ‘old-fashioned’ heroism – cited as a key reason for the film’s domestic US failure – resonated with Australian audiences, who embraced The Phantom precisely because it was the antithesis of the American superhero archetype.Less
The Phantom (1996) was a feature-film adaptation of the American comic strip character today regarded as a forerunner of the superhero. However, The Phantom film was an American box-office failure and is routinely overlooked in academic studies of the ‘comic-book movie’. By contrast, The Phantom was a commercial success in Australia, ranking amongst the Top-5 films upon its cinema release and, therefore, this chapter investigates The Phantom’s localized success. The Phantom film provides the basis of a broader inquiry into the global circulation of the superhero phenomenon beyond its American ‘homeland’ by examining the film’s industrial production and cultural reception in Australia, the where character has paradoxically become an ‘indigenous’ superhero. Moreover, it explores how The Phantom’s embodiment of ‘old-fashioned’ heroism – cited as a key reason for the film’s domestic US failure – resonated with Australian audiences, who embraced The Phantom precisely because it was the antithesis of the American superhero archetype.
Geoff Pearson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780719087219
- eISBN:
- 9781781706145
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719087219.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This is an ethnographic account of English football fans who travel home and away with their team, based upon sixteen years’ participant observation. The author identifies a distinct sub-culture of ...
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This is an ethnographic account of English football fans who travel home and away with their team, based upon sixteen years’ participant observation. The author identifies a distinct sub-culture of supporter – the ‘carnival fan’ – who dominated the travelling support of the three clubs observed - Manchester United, Blackpool and the England national team. This accessible account follows these groups home and abroad, describing their interpretations, motivations and behaviour and challenging a number of the myths about ‘hooliganism’ and crowd control. An Ethnography of English Football Fans identifies the primary motivation of these fan groups to be the creation of a carnival – a period of transgression from the norms of everyday life based upon congregating in groups, alcohol consumption, humour and tomfoolery, and expressions of identity. In achieving these aims, the fan groups were frequently brought into conflict with the football authorities, police and ‘hooligan’ groups and this account includes explanations of some of the most serious instances of crowd disorder involving English fans in the last two decades. The book also looks at issues such as attitudes to gender, sexuality and race, and the impact of technology upon football fandom.Less
This is an ethnographic account of English football fans who travel home and away with their team, based upon sixteen years’ participant observation. The author identifies a distinct sub-culture of supporter – the ‘carnival fan’ – who dominated the travelling support of the three clubs observed - Manchester United, Blackpool and the England national team. This accessible account follows these groups home and abroad, describing their interpretations, motivations and behaviour and challenging a number of the myths about ‘hooliganism’ and crowd control. An Ethnography of English Football Fans identifies the primary motivation of these fan groups to be the creation of a carnival – a period of transgression from the norms of everyday life based upon congregating in groups, alcohol consumption, humour and tomfoolery, and expressions of identity. In achieving these aims, the fan groups were frequently brought into conflict with the football authorities, police and ‘hooligan’ groups and this account includes explanations of some of the most serious instances of crowd disorder involving English fans in the last two decades. The book also looks at issues such as attitudes to gender, sexuality and race, and the impact of technology upon football fandom.
Robin Anne Reid
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496811523
- eISBN:
- 9781496811561
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496811523.003.0014
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Robin Anne Reid, in “Bending Culture: Racebending.com’s Protests Against Media Whitewashing,” ruminates on the extent to which the gap between the categories of cultural, or fan activism, and ...
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Robin Anne Reid, in “Bending Culture: Racebending.com’s Protests Against Media Whitewashing,” ruminates on the extent to which the gap between the categories of cultural, or fan activism, and political activism may be changing, especially with regard to younger people participating in online activist sites. Reid concentrates her inquiry on one internet community, Racebending.com, which originated in a protest against the casting of white actors in M. Night Shyamalan live-action adaptation The Last Airbender (2010). She argues that the group’s online activities since the release of the film shows the overlap between fan and political activism, thereby demonstrating connections between critical race and intersectional studies.Less
Robin Anne Reid, in “Bending Culture: Racebending.com’s Protests Against Media Whitewashing,” ruminates on the extent to which the gap between the categories of cultural, or fan activism, and political activism may be changing, especially with regard to younger people participating in online activist sites. Reid concentrates her inquiry on one internet community, Racebending.com, which originated in a protest against the casting of white actors in M. Night Shyamalan live-action adaptation The Last Airbender (2010). She argues that the group’s online activities since the release of the film shows the overlap between fan and political activism, thereby demonstrating connections between critical race and intersectional studies.
Cait Coker
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496811523
- eISBN:
- 9781496811561
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496811523.003.0015
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Through her essay “The Mako Mori Fan Club,” Cait Coker examines the subversive nature of Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim (2013) by utilizing fan works as sources of viable criticism to decenter the ...
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Through her essay “The Mako Mori Fan Club,” Cait Coker examines the subversive nature of Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim (2013) by utilizing fan works as sources of viable criticism to decenter the white American male action hero with a Japanese heroine. To this end, Coker delves into the major motifs of Pacific Rim fandom online and considers its relationship with a film that seemingly “failed” in the American market but exploded internationally, even prompting a sequel slated for 2017. She also reflects on how the depictions of close, but not necessarily romantic, relationships are celebrated in both the film and in fandom as illustrating a cooperative ideal generally not seen in popular, mainstream media.Less
Through her essay “The Mako Mori Fan Club,” Cait Coker examines the subversive nature of Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim (2013) by utilizing fan works as sources of viable criticism to decenter the white American male action hero with a Japanese heroine. To this end, Coker delves into the major motifs of Pacific Rim fandom online and considers its relationship with a film that seemingly “failed” in the American market but exploded internationally, even prompting a sequel slated for 2017. She also reflects on how the depictions of close, but not necessarily romantic, relationships are celebrated in both the film and in fandom as illustrating a cooperative ideal generally not seen in popular, mainstream media.
Su Holmes
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748627523
- eISBN:
- 9780748671212
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748627523.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
Although quiz shows often encourage us to ‘play’ along, and they encode the participation of the audience into their textual form, there have been virtually no audience studies in this sphere. This ...
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Although quiz shows often encourage us to ‘play’ along, and they encode the participation of the audience into their textual form, there have been virtually no audience studies in this sphere. This chapter seeks to address this neglect. Moving from the early broadcast origins of the quiz show up until the advent of ‘interactive’ television, it considers the ways in which the viewer at home has been encouraged to participate. It then moves on to explore how fan cultures on the internet offer insights into audience interaction with the quiz show (and its cultural politics). But as such fans are also often contestants, the chapter returns to the questions of ‘performance’ and ‘authenticity’ examined in Chapter 5.Less
Although quiz shows often encourage us to ‘play’ along, and they encode the participation of the audience into their textual form, there have been virtually no audience studies in this sphere. This chapter seeks to address this neglect. Moving from the early broadcast origins of the quiz show up until the advent of ‘interactive’ television, it considers the ways in which the viewer at home has been encouraged to participate. It then moves on to explore how fan cultures on the internet offer insights into audience interaction with the quiz show (and its cultural politics). But as such fans are also often contestants, the chapter returns to the questions of ‘performance’ and ‘authenticity’ examined in Chapter 5.
Kristyn Gorton
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748624171
- eISBN:
- 9780748670956
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748624171.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter focuses on the meaning fans, readers and critics give to particular television texts, the affective dimensions of this 'meaning making,' and considers a way to rethink the 'dangers' of ...
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This chapter focuses on the meaning fans, readers and critics give to particular television texts, the affective dimensions of this 'meaning making,' and considers a way to rethink the 'dangers' of 'sitting too close to the tele'. It draws on work by David Bordwell, Michel de Certeau and Henry Jenkins in particular. It also considers new theories on fandom and the relationship between consumerism and television viewing practices.Less
This chapter focuses on the meaning fans, readers and critics give to particular television texts, the affective dimensions of this 'meaning making,' and considers a way to rethink the 'dangers' of 'sitting too close to the tele'. It draws on work by David Bordwell, Michel de Certeau and Henry Jenkins in particular. It also considers new theories on fandom and the relationship between consumerism and television viewing practices.
Alex Naylor
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781496808714
- eISBN:
- 9781496808752
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496808714.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Alex Naylor’s “‘My Skin Has Turned to Porcelain, to Ivory, to Steel’: Feminist Fan Discourses, Game of Thrones, and the Problem of Sansa” explores debates on Tumblr over the sword-fighting, ...
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Alex Naylor’s “‘My Skin Has Turned to Porcelain, to Ivory, to Steel’: Feminist Fan Discourses, Game of Thrones, and the Problem of Sansa” explores debates on Tumblr over the sword-fighting, genderbending figure of Arya Stark and her princess-turned-stoic-survivalist sister, Sansa. Fan perspectives on Sansa, Naylor finds, take the form of intense appreciations of her, reflections on how her narrative refracts issues of young women’s victimization and survival, and “defenses” that confront her detractors and implicate the role of sexism and misogyny in some fans’ vocal dislike of the character. Because, for many young women, this kind of online popular culture critique is their first introduction to feminist ideas, argues Naylor, it is most productively explored within the context of a wider debate in both feminist and fandom social media spaces about what a modern feminist ethics of media consumption might look like.Less
Alex Naylor’s “‘My Skin Has Turned to Porcelain, to Ivory, to Steel’: Feminist Fan Discourses, Game of Thrones, and the Problem of Sansa” explores debates on Tumblr over the sword-fighting, genderbending figure of Arya Stark and her princess-turned-stoic-survivalist sister, Sansa. Fan perspectives on Sansa, Naylor finds, take the form of intense appreciations of her, reflections on how her narrative refracts issues of young women’s victimization and survival, and “defenses” that confront her detractors and implicate the role of sexism and misogyny in some fans’ vocal dislike of the character. Because, for many young women, this kind of online popular culture critique is their first introduction to feminist ideas, argues Naylor, it is most productively explored within the context of a wider debate in both feminist and fandom social media spaces about what a modern feminist ethics of media consumption might look like.
Ling Yang and Yanrui Xu
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9789888390809
- eISBN:
- 9789888390441
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888390809.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gay and Lesbian Studies
By tracing the trajectory of Chinese danmei fandom in the past two decades, this chapter explores the possibility of danmei as a model of grassroots globalization. The chapter focuses on three key ...
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By tracing the trajectory of Chinese danmei fandom in the past two decades, this chapter explores the possibility of danmei as a model of grassroots globalization. The chapter focuses on three key aspects of Chinese danmei fandom: the establishment of online and offline infrastructures, the formation of different danmei circles, and the emergence of a women-dominated online public sphere. The authors seek to use the example of danmei fandom to challenge the masculinized, top-down model of thinking about transnational cultural flows that overemphasizes national origin, the industrial player, the official economy, and the competition for soft power at the expense of other glocalized, noninstitutionalized, nonprofit, noncompetitive ways of cultural exchange.Less
By tracing the trajectory of Chinese danmei fandom in the past two decades, this chapter explores the possibility of danmei as a model of grassroots globalization. The chapter focuses on three key aspects of Chinese danmei fandom: the establishment of online and offline infrastructures, the formation of different danmei circles, and the emergence of a women-dominated online public sphere. The authors seek to use the example of danmei fandom to challenge the masculinized, top-down model of thinking about transnational cultural flows that overemphasizes national origin, the industrial player, the official economy, and the competition for soft power at the expense of other glocalized, noninstitutionalized, nonprofit, noncompetitive ways of cultural exchange.
Ling Yang
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9789888390809
- eISBN:
- 9789888390441
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888390809.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gay and Lesbian Studies
Hetalia: Axis Powers (2006–) is one of the most popular Japanese comic and anime series in China in recent years. Through a critical analysis of diverse fan discourses and two canonical fanzines, ...
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Hetalia: Axis Powers (2006–) is one of the most popular Japanese comic and anime series in China in recent years. Through a critical analysis of diverse fan discourses and two canonical fanzines, this chapter examines the intersections between gender politics and geopolitics, nationalism and transnationalism, and localization and globalization in online Chinese Hetalia fandom. The Hetalia boom in China shows that BL not only can function as a tool to reshape configurations of gender and sexuality, it can also be employed by young women and others as a vehicle for political expression.Less
Hetalia: Axis Powers (2006–) is one of the most popular Japanese comic and anime series in China in recent years. Through a critical analysis of diverse fan discourses and two canonical fanzines, this chapter examines the intersections between gender politics and geopolitics, nationalism and transnationalism, and localization and globalization in online Chinese Hetalia fandom. The Hetalia boom in China shows that BL not only can function as a tool to reshape configurations of gender and sexuality, it can also be employed by young women and others as a vehicle for political expression.
Egret Lulu Zhou
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9789888390809
- eISBN:
- 9789888390441
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888390809.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gay and Lesbian Studies
This chapter studies the gender politics of a legendary queer icon, Dongfang Bubai, in post-Mao China. In Jin Yong’s original novel (1967–1969), this character is a self-castrated man who satirizes ...
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This chapter studies the gender politics of a legendary queer icon, Dongfang Bubai, in post-Mao China. In Jin Yong’s original novel (1967–1969), this character is a self-castrated man who satirizes Mao Zedong and his Great Cultural Revolution, and then Tsui Hark’s film (1991) cast a female star into this role, invoking Hong Kong’s postcolonial experiences. In Yu Zheng’s television drama (2013), this character was changed to be a woman played by a female star. Yet, this seemly conservative change did not stifled fans’ queer reading tactics in cyberspaces. Using internet ethnography, the author found that at least three reading tactics had emerged: (1) gay readings which imagine Dongfang Bubai as a gay lover even though now a female role played by a female star; (2) heterosexual readings which understand Dongfang Bubai as a “leftover woman,” which is a newly coined term that stigmatizes those unmarried highly educated women with relatively high age and high professional status; (3) lesbian readings which celebrate transgressing both incest taboo and heterosexuality but at once reject gay readings. By studying the complicated case of Dongfang Bubai, this chapter contends that there are simultaneous symbiosis and conflicts of queer and nonqueer articulations in fan cultures.Less
This chapter studies the gender politics of a legendary queer icon, Dongfang Bubai, in post-Mao China. In Jin Yong’s original novel (1967–1969), this character is a self-castrated man who satirizes Mao Zedong and his Great Cultural Revolution, and then Tsui Hark’s film (1991) cast a female star into this role, invoking Hong Kong’s postcolonial experiences. In Yu Zheng’s television drama (2013), this character was changed to be a woman played by a female star. Yet, this seemly conservative change did not stifled fans’ queer reading tactics in cyberspaces. Using internet ethnography, the author found that at least three reading tactics had emerged: (1) gay readings which imagine Dongfang Bubai as a gay lover even though now a female role played by a female star; (2) heterosexual readings which understand Dongfang Bubai as a “leftover woman,” which is a newly coined term that stigmatizes those unmarried highly educated women with relatively high age and high professional status; (3) lesbian readings which celebrate transgressing both incest taboo and heterosexuality but at once reject gay readings. By studying the complicated case of Dongfang Bubai, this chapter contends that there are simultaneous symbiosis and conflicts of queer and nonqueer articulations in fan cultures.
David Church
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780748699100
- eISBN:
- 9781474408578
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748699100.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Combining cultural history, media industry analysis, reception study, and textual readings, this book explores how nostalgia for drive-in theatres and grind houses provides fans with remembered ...
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Combining cultural history, media industry analysis, reception study, and textual readings, this book explores how nostalgia for drive-in theatres and grind houses provides fans with remembered spaces and times to imaginatively inhabit as compensation for their devotion to low-budget exploitation genres that have gradually garnered greater accessibility with their release on successive video formats. Yet, because nostalgia is inherently contestable as a mystification of history, it can also breed ambivalence over the classed and gendered connotations of films that are no longer beneath the purview of traditional subcultural boundaries. Home video thereby remediates not only past filmic texts, but also the structure of fandom itself when the material sites of film consumption shift in response to industrial trends, social changes, and taste valuations that have indefinitely extended the afterlives of historical exploitation texts and their methods of cultural circulation. The celluloid dilapidation of these largely neglected films becomes a valued signifier of subcultural esteem—as in the recent cycle of “retrosploitation” films like Grindhouse (2007), Black Dynamite (2009) and Machete (2010), which feature both digitally simulated celluloid decay and protagonists whose retributive violence resonates with a sense of retribution for exploitation cinema's own cultural decay.Less
Combining cultural history, media industry analysis, reception study, and textual readings, this book explores how nostalgia for drive-in theatres and grind houses provides fans with remembered spaces and times to imaginatively inhabit as compensation for their devotion to low-budget exploitation genres that have gradually garnered greater accessibility with their release on successive video formats. Yet, because nostalgia is inherently contestable as a mystification of history, it can also breed ambivalence over the classed and gendered connotations of films that are no longer beneath the purview of traditional subcultural boundaries. Home video thereby remediates not only past filmic texts, but also the structure of fandom itself when the material sites of film consumption shift in response to industrial trends, social changes, and taste valuations that have indefinitely extended the afterlives of historical exploitation texts and their methods of cultural circulation. The celluloid dilapidation of these largely neglected films becomes a valued signifier of subcultural esteem—as in the recent cycle of “retrosploitation” films like Grindhouse (2007), Black Dynamite (2009) and Machete (2010), which feature both digitally simulated celluloid decay and protagonists whose retributive violence resonates with a sense of retribution for exploitation cinema's own cultural decay.
David Church
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780748699100
- eISBN:
- 9781474408578
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748699100.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Nostalgia grounds the subcultural ideologies and capitals that can unite and divide fans from each other as the shape of contemporary fandom grows more mobile and diffuse. Much as nostalgia allows ...
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Nostalgia grounds the subcultural ideologies and capitals that can unite and divide fans from each other as the shape of contemporary fandom grows more mobile and diffuse. Much as nostalgia allows past time periods to be envisioned like spaces that can be inhabited by fans, past spaces of exploitation film consumption can be nostalgically linked to particular time periods. Likewise, fandom itself can be envisioned as a particular space/time that arises as an object of nostalgia, especially when the acceleration of format transitions in the home video market has currently made exploitation films more culturally visible and accessible than ever before. Meanwhile, nostalgic cues have been increasingly coded into the remediated exploitation text as a buffer against perceived (sub)cultural and technological change, preserving the exploitation film's dominant association with pastness in a time of textual overabundance and fragmented taste micro-groups. Much as nostalgia's dialectical appraisal of the revalued past over the present can produce both ironic distance and heartfelt sincerity in the reception of historical exploitation texts, these multivalent responses echo the commingled irony and sincerity about fandom itself that can arise as the imagined shape of fandom becomes more nebulous.Less
Nostalgia grounds the subcultural ideologies and capitals that can unite and divide fans from each other as the shape of contemporary fandom grows more mobile and diffuse. Much as nostalgia allows past time periods to be envisioned like spaces that can be inhabited by fans, past spaces of exploitation film consumption can be nostalgically linked to particular time periods. Likewise, fandom itself can be envisioned as a particular space/time that arises as an object of nostalgia, especially when the acceleration of format transitions in the home video market has currently made exploitation films more culturally visible and accessible than ever before. Meanwhile, nostalgic cues have been increasingly coded into the remediated exploitation text as a buffer against perceived (sub)cultural and technological change, preserving the exploitation film's dominant association with pastness in a time of textual overabundance and fragmented taste micro-groups. Much as nostalgia's dialectical appraisal of the revalued past over the present can produce both ironic distance and heartfelt sincerity in the reception of historical exploitation texts, these multivalent responses echo the commingled irony and sincerity about fandom itself that can arise as the imagined shape of fandom becomes more nebulous.
Tessa Dwyer
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474410946
- eISBN:
- 9781474434720
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474410946.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter focuses on the emergent, participatory practice of fansubbing (‘fan subtitling’), examining its origins within anime subculture and its ongoing evolution. Fansubbing is examined as an ...
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This chapter focuses on the emergent, participatory practice of fansubbing (‘fan subtitling’), examining its origins within anime subculture and its ongoing evolution. Fansubbing is examined as an informal translation practice that emerged as a subset of media piracy with its own ethical standards and rules of conduct. Much early anime fansubbing focused on redressing the domesticating tendencies of professional services, and in this sense highlighted the gatekeeping, controlling function of translation. Hence, this case study further demonstrates links between piracy, censorship and subversion introduced in the previous chapter. It also demonstrates how fansubbing’s intervention into screen media points to the growing significance of translation as a mode of cultural participation responsive to the intensifying multilingualism of global media and technologies. Fans are discussed as ‘lead-users’ of new technologies that trial functionality and uncover emergent uses, demands and desires along the way—exemplifying the increasingly active and unruly ways in which people currently consume and engage with media. Proposing that fansubbing’s communal, errant tendencies are vital to its re-evaluative function, this chapter identifies a point of difference between the reconceptual program of this book and the notion of ‘abusive subtitling’ (Nornes 1999).Less
This chapter focuses on the emergent, participatory practice of fansubbing (‘fan subtitling’), examining its origins within anime subculture and its ongoing evolution. Fansubbing is examined as an informal translation practice that emerged as a subset of media piracy with its own ethical standards and rules of conduct. Much early anime fansubbing focused on redressing the domesticating tendencies of professional services, and in this sense highlighted the gatekeeping, controlling function of translation. Hence, this case study further demonstrates links between piracy, censorship and subversion introduced in the previous chapter. It also demonstrates how fansubbing’s intervention into screen media points to the growing significance of translation as a mode of cultural participation responsive to the intensifying multilingualism of global media and technologies. Fans are discussed as ‘lead-users’ of new technologies that trial functionality and uncover emergent uses, demands and desires along the way—exemplifying the increasingly active and unruly ways in which people currently consume and engage with media. Proposing that fansubbing’s communal, errant tendencies are vital to its re-evaluative function, this chapter identifies a point of difference between the reconceptual program of this book and the notion of ‘abusive subtitling’ (Nornes 1999).
William Cheng
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199969968
- eISBN:
- 9780199370092
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199969968.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, Ethnomusicology, World Music
After Chapter 1 pushes music's epistemologies to a breaking point, Chapter 2 hits a refresh button of sorts, returning to an earlier era when composers were tasked with making the most out of limited ...
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After Chapter 1 pushes music's epistemologies to a breaking point, Chapter 2 hits a refresh button of sorts, returning to an earlier era when composers were tasked with making the most out of limited game audio technologies. Focusing on the opera sequence from the 1994 game Final Fantasy VI, this case study inquires into the poetics of embedded spectacle, the signifying powers of synthesized sounds, and voice's phenomenal valencies. By comparing the original 16-bit opera with its present-day live concert arrangements, the chapter underscores the roles of remembrance, nostalgia, and enchantment in the reception and enduring fandom of early game music.Less
After Chapter 1 pushes music's epistemologies to a breaking point, Chapter 2 hits a refresh button of sorts, returning to an earlier era when composers were tasked with making the most out of limited game audio technologies. Focusing on the opera sequence from the 1994 game Final Fantasy VI, this case study inquires into the poetics of embedded spectacle, the signifying powers of synthesized sounds, and voice's phenomenal valencies. By comparing the original 16-bit opera with its present-day live concert arrangements, the chapter underscores the roles of remembrance, nostalgia, and enchantment in the reception and enduring fandom of early game music.
