American Fan Cultures 4219-SD0067
This course will explore various aspects of fan cultures and fan studies in American culture. We will discuss debates around major popular movie and TV franchises along with fan-created content, such as fan videos and fanfiction. The course will be an opportunity to apply methodologies developed in fan studies, media studies and cultural studies to contemporary phenomena in popular culture, including convergence culture, transmedia storytelling, cultural poaching, and participatory culture.
The course will be divided into several modules (1-3 classes) dealing with particular aspects of fandom cultures, including fannish practices such as fanfiction and fanart, identity politics and the politics of inclusion/exclusion as well as gendered, racialized, classed and embodied aspects of participation in fandoms, transgressive potentials and their limits within contemporary fandom cultures, history of audio-visual fandoms in the US etc. Special emphasis will be placed on situating fannish participation and practices within a larger context of American mediascapes and the understanding the impact of Web 2.0, the advent of streaming platforms, social media explosion, media consolidation and a turn to transmedia storytelling have had on fandom cultures.
Selected Modules:
Introduction to Fandom Studies and Its Methodologies
History of Fandom Formation
Identity Politics within Fandom
Online Fandom and Participatory Culture(s)
Transmedia Storytelling
Fannish Practices
Intersections of Fandom, Marketing and Entertainment Business
Join the Dark Side: Transgressions and their Limits
Type of course
Mode
Learning outcomes
KNOWLEDGE
Upon completing this course a student:
a. has a knowledge of fan studies as a discipline
b. understands the impact of gender, class, race, and sexual identity on engagement with popular culture
c. has an advanced knowledge of major issues related to pop culture fandoms and fan communities
SKILLS
Upon completing this course a student:
a. is able to critically analyze media representations (TV, film, literature)
b. is able to apply fan studies methods and perspectives to their own research
c. can formulate and express his or her view on current political and social issues
COMPETENCES
Upon completing this course a student:
a. understands academic texts and is able to apply them to cultural and social analysis
b. can actively and respectfully participate in group discussions
c. is able to plan and undertake research steps in order to prepare a research paper on a topic related to the issues covered in the course
Assessment criteria
Special emphasis is placed on students' active participation, which means that students are expected to participate in the discussions and group work during the classes. Students should read the assigned texts and engage with other primary source materials.
Three reading responses: 30%
Final essay: 40%
Participation: 30%
Students need 60% to pass the course.
Bibliography
Literature (subject to change)
Coppa, Francesca. "Fuck Yeah, Fandom Is Beautiful." Journal of Fandom Studies 2 (1) 2014: 73–82. https://doi.org/10.1386/jfs.2.1.73_1.
De Kosnik, Abigail. "Fifty Shades" and the Archive of Women's Culture. Cinema Journal, Vol. 54, No. 3 (Spring 2015): 116-125.
Ellis, Lindsay. “Into The Omegaverse: How a Fanfic Trope Landed in Federal Court.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhWWcWtAUoY.
Heffner, K. (2022) “Femizine: A Study of Femme-Fans’ Labour in Post-War Fan Cultures”, Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction. Science Fiction Foundation, pp. 19-33. Available at: https://www.proquest.com/docview/2662040308?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true.
Hellekson, Karen and Kristina Busse (eds.) The Fan Fiction Studies Reader. University of Iowa Press, 2014. (selected fragments)
Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press, 2006.
Lothian, Alexis. "Choose Not to Warn: Trigger Warnings and Content Notes From Fan Culture to Feminist Pedagogy." Feminist Studies 42 (3) 2016: 743–56. https://doi.org/10.15767/feministstudies.42.3.0743.
Lothian, Alexis, Kristina Busse, Robin Anne Reid; “Yearning Void and Infinite Potential”: Online Slash Fandom as Queer Female Space. English Language Notes 1 September 2007; 45 (2): 103–111. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00138282-45.2.103
Lothian, Alexis, and Mel Stanfill. 2021. "An Archive of Whose Own? White Feminism and Racial Justice in Fan Fiction's Digital Infrastructure." Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 36. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2021.2119.
Neville, Lucy. Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys: Women and Gay Male Pornography and Erotica. Springer, 2018. (selected fragments)
Pande, Rukmini. Squee from the Margins: Fandom and Race. University of Iowa Press, 2018. (selected fragments)
Spacey, Ashton (ed.). The Darker Side of Slash Fan Fiction: Essays on Power, Consent and the Body. McFarland & Company, 2018. (selected fragments)
Stanfill, Mel. "The Unbearable Whiteness of Fandom and Fan Studies." In A Companion to Fandom and Fan Studies, edited by Paul Booth, 305–17. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2018.
Wanzo, Rebecca. "African American Acafandom and Other Strangers: New Genealogies of Fan Studies." Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 20. 2015. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2015.0699.
Woo, Benjamin. "The Invisible Bag of Holding: Whiteness and Media Fandom." In The Routledge Companion to Media Fandom, edited by Melissa A. Click and Suzanne Scott, 245–52. Routledge, 2017.
Fansplaining podcast (selection)
Slashreport podcast (selection)
Fan fiction and fan art chosen by the students and the instructors
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: