Fandom
Identities and Communities in a Mediated World
Published on 1. June 2007
Book
Hardback
412 pages
978-0-8147-3181-9 (ISBN)
Description
The first edition of a seminal work on fans and communities
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.
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.
Reviews / Votes
Highly recommended. (Choice) Fandom explores the multidimensional aspects of the fascination, enthrallment, obsession that fans have with their various interests. (Journal of Mass Communication Quarterly) 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. (M/C Reviews) 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. - Jason Mittell,Middlebury College Thought-provoking. . . . Well-selected and challenging collection. (Screen)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
Trade binding
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
658 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8147-3181-9 (9780814731819)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Jonathan Gray is Hamel Family Distinguished Chair in Communication Arts, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and author and editor of numerous books, including Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other Media Paratexts (2010), Fandom, Second Edition (2017), Keywords for Media Studies (2017), and Satire TV (2009), as well as Television Studies (with Amanda D. Lotz), and A Companion to Media Authorship (with Derek Johnson).
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).
Cornel Sandvoss is Professor of Media and Journalism and co-founding Director of Centre of Participatory Culture at the University of Huddersfield.
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).
Cornel Sandvoss is Professor of Media and Journalism and co-founding Director of Centre of Participatory Culture at the University of Huddersfield.
Content
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Why Study Fans? Part I: Fan Texts: From Aesthetic to Legal JudgmentsPart II: Beyond Pop Culture from News to High Culture Part III: Spaces of Fandom: From Place to Performance Part IV: Fan Audiences Worldwide: From the Global to the Local Part V: Shifting Contexts, Changing Fan Cultures: From Concert Halls to Console Games Part VI: Fans and Anti-Fans: From Love to HateBibliographyAbout the ContributorsIndex