From 19th century “Janeites,” to 1960s “Beatlemania,” to today’s “Swifities”: Fans have long played an integral role in popular culture and media reception. Despite stereotypical depictions of “screaming fangirls” suggesting otherwise, fans are not just passive consumers, but actively contribute to and shape popular culture. This seminar critically engages with fandom, fan practices, discourses, and communities. Paying particular attention to queer-feminist perspectives, we look at a variety of fandoms and practices. We examine how fandom is linked to identity and may contribute to identity constructions, particularly in relation to gender and sexuality, but also how it may enable parasocial relationships and toxic identification. We investigate how social media platforms both facilitate and limit the formation of communities and the circulation of discourses. Further, we explore the potentials of fandom representing a starting point for (political) education, consciousness-raising, and activism, while possibly simultaneously providing breeding ground for conspiracy theories. This seminar provides students with an overview of fan studies as an interdisciplinary research field, surveying its key theories and concepts, and some of its methodological approaches.
- Kursleiter/in: Hannah Helene Jamet-Lange