Scan barcode
rmkg's review against another edition
Some really good essays in here, but I wasn't interested in all of them and I had to return the book to the library.
quartzwolf's review against another edition
3.0
interesting as a history of the study. the age of most of these essays shows particularly with regards to the approaches to gender.
will_meringue's review
Very interesting and relevant to my study but didn't have time to read the whole book, so I just read the three essays that were relevant for my essay
thedearest's review against another edition
3.0
Full review here:http://galactictidesx.blogspot.ca/2014/09/book-review-fan-fiction-studies-reader.html
If you're looking for an insight into fandom and how it came to be, Fic by Anne Jamison is the fun and lighter pop culture guide. If you'd like a better understanding of how it feels to be involved in fandom, I think Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell has a touching, if fictionalized, account of fandom. The Fan Fiction Studies Reader is about how academia is theorizing about fandom as a subset of cultural studies and its connection to other cultural practices of interpreting, reinterpreting and making stories in our own image. Through a series of academic articles, the Fan Fiction Studies Reader guides us through the modern academic conversations about fanfiction.
There's mention of Sherlock, Star Trek, Xena, Babylon 5, Harry Potter, X-Files and Star Wars but really only in-depth analysis of the first two. However, I will say it does take into account how different fandoms negotiate their space and how individual fandoms have adapted to different mediums and their subject matter quite differently. My favourite discussions (because I'm sure as it goes on, much like fandom there will be clashing theories about not only fandom's significance but its interpretations) are the few that really connect to other fields. On feminism and sexuality, slash fiction and the much maligned Mary Sue, there are some really wonderful in-depth articles exploring the possible meanings and the more complicated discussions these things entail.
I'm really not pleased with the restriction of the texts used to Western media--I really think it does the text a disservice and also erases the origins of a lot of fan culture and tropes. I also think that the fact there is nothing in-depth about modern fandoms (i.e. Supernatural, Harry Potter, One Direction etc) restricts a better understanding of how the internet has influenced this phenomena. I acknowledge that Hellekson and Busse already edited a volume of essays called "Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet" but some of that could have been captured in the Fan Fiction Studies Reader if it is meant to be a foundational text, especially one from the Organization of Transformative Works. That being said, it is a fair overview of academia and fanfiction.
Full disclosure: I received this book as a Netgalley from University of Iowa Books in exchange for an honest review.
If you're looking for an insight into fandom and how it came to be, Fic by Anne Jamison is the fun and lighter pop culture guide. If you'd like a better understanding of how it feels to be involved in fandom, I think Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell has a touching, if fictionalized, account of fandom. The Fan Fiction Studies Reader is about how academia is theorizing about fandom as a subset of cultural studies and its connection to other cultural practices of interpreting, reinterpreting and making stories in our own image. Through a series of academic articles, the Fan Fiction Studies Reader guides us through the modern academic conversations about fanfiction.
There's mention of Sherlock, Star Trek, Xena, Babylon 5, Harry Potter, X-Files and Star Wars but really only in-depth analysis of the first two. However, I will say it does take into account how different fandoms negotiate their space and how individual fandoms have adapted to different mediums and their subject matter quite differently. My favourite discussions (because I'm sure as it goes on, much like fandom there will be clashing theories about not only fandom's significance but its interpretations) are the few that really connect to other fields. On feminism and sexuality, slash fiction and the much maligned Mary Sue, there are some really wonderful in-depth articles exploring the possible meanings and the more complicated discussions these things entail.
I'm really not pleased with the restriction of the texts used to Western media--I really think it does the text a disservice and also erases the origins of a lot of fan culture and tropes. I also think that the fact there is nothing in-depth about modern fandoms (i.e. Supernatural, Harry Potter, One Direction etc) restricts a better understanding of how the internet has influenced this phenomena. I acknowledge that Hellekson and Busse already edited a volume of essays called "Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet" but some of that could have been captured in the Fan Fiction Studies Reader if it is meant to be a foundational text, especially one from the Organization of Transformative Works. That being said, it is a fair overview of academia and fanfiction.
Full disclosure: I received this book as a Netgalley from University of Iowa Books in exchange for an honest review.
fangirljeanne's review against another edition
3.0
A good resource, but we can do better.
That big ol’ slap in the face tainted my entire reading experience. Anyone who is supposedly educated in fan culture knows it is impossible to have a true understanding of modern fan fiction and fan culture without at least having a cursory knowledge of the impact made by Anime/Manga. A fair amount of the vernacular of fandom, including many fan fiction terms, originate from Japanese, specifically Anime/Manga, fan culture. This is especially true for slash fan fiction (from countless “Western” media fandoms), that not only borrows from the language, but owes many of the popular story tropes and relationship dynamics to Yaoi.
This blatant erasure of an integral part of fandom history and fan culture might not have bothered me as much hadn’t been the only book on fan fiction to suffer from cultural myopia, but it’s not. This self-imposed “blind spot” is becoming all to common “Western” academia's treatment of fan culture, and I’m sick of it.
It is 2014. Whitewashing fan culture has no place in academia. DO BETTER!
Due impart to this homogenized view of fan culture and fan works, I found this book didn’t have anything new to teach me that I didn’t know already. This book, like many academic essays is equal parts thoughtful analysis and overblown knob polishing. It takes a lot of work to separate the wheat from the chaff, but it still has its value.
I would recommend this book to anyone curious about fan fiction and especially to those wishing to study fan culture. There’s a great deal of insight and information, but keep in mind the scope is very narrow, and decidedly pale in complexion. Meanwhile, I’ll be waiting for bell hooks to write a about intersectional feminism in fan culture.
Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
“We have nevertheless chosen to restrict our collection to transformative written works of Western media texts in order to provide a cogent history of one particular strand of fan studies research that has been prolific and influential to both fans and media studies.”
That big ol’ slap in the face tainted my entire reading experience. Anyone who is supposedly educated in fan culture knows it is impossible to have a true understanding of modern fan fiction and fan culture without at least having a cursory knowledge of the impact made by Anime/Manga. A fair amount of the vernacular of fandom, including many fan fiction terms, originate from Japanese, specifically Anime/Manga, fan culture. This is especially true for slash fan fiction (from countless “Western” media fandoms), that not only borrows from the language, but owes many of the popular story tropes and relationship dynamics to Yaoi.
This blatant erasure of an integral part of fandom history and fan culture might not have bothered me as much hadn’t been the only book on fan fiction to suffer from cultural myopia, but it’s not. This self-imposed “blind spot” is becoming all to common “Western” academia's treatment of fan culture, and I’m sick of it.
It is 2014. Whitewashing fan culture has no place in academia. DO BETTER!
Due impart to this homogenized view of fan culture and fan works, I found this book didn’t have anything new to teach me that I didn’t know already. This book, like many academic essays is equal parts thoughtful analysis and overblown knob polishing. It takes a lot of work to separate the wheat from the chaff, but it still has its value.
I would recommend this book to anyone curious about fan fiction and especially to those wishing to study fan culture. There’s a great deal of insight and information, but keep in mind the scope is very narrow, and decidedly pale in complexion. Meanwhile, I’ll be waiting for bell hooks to write a about intersectional feminism in fan culture.
Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
queenoferebor's review against another edition
2.0
As someone who is writing her master's thesis on fanfiction, I thought this books would save my life and give me a startpoint on the field. However, now I feel like I've wasted time, energy and money in this. Don't get me wrong, the book is good, and the articles/studies/papers on it are of great interest, but I think it miserably fails at its aim of being an introduction to the field. Yes, some of the texts included here are what one might call "foundational" texts, but just on the first pages I realised that the title was misleading:
FanFiction Studies reader, but the texts come from the field of Fan Studies (there are a couple of texts which don't have anything to do with fanfiction per se), and the focus on fanfiction is based on a Western perspective, within media fandoms and basicaly dealing with Star Trek. The perspective is too narrow. Where is the Japanese/Manga influence? And the literary fandoms? And what about a simple explanation of what is fanfiction? Now, the reference section is a goldmine for me, so I'll give them that.
Other than that, this book is not for someone who is trying to get into the world of fanfiction, certainly. It is a purely scholarly work. I can't say it's a bad book, and I don't want to dismiss the editors effort- they did a pretty good job, but I feel it didn't meet its purposes and for that I'm giving it 2 stars.
FanFiction Studies reader, but the texts come from the field of Fan Studies (there are a couple of texts which don't have anything to do with fanfiction per se), and the focus on fanfiction is based on a Western perspective, within media fandoms and basicaly dealing with Star Trek. The perspective is too narrow. Where is the Japanese/Manga influence? And the literary fandoms? And what about a simple explanation of what is fanfiction? Now, the reference section is a goldmine for me, so I'll give them that.
Other than that, this book is not for someone who is trying to get into the world of fanfiction, certainly. It is a purely scholarly work. I can't say it's a bad book, and I don't want to dismiss the editors effort- they did a pretty good job, but I feel it didn't meet its purposes and for that I'm giving it 2 stars.
easyqueenie's review
4.0
The Fan Fiction Studies Reader serves as a primer to the world of fan fiction studies by excerpting eleven essays by academics in the field. These essays are grouped into four thematic areas: Fan Fiction as Literature, Fan Identity and Feminism, Fan Communities and Affect, and Fan Creativity and Performance.
Sophie took away a huge amount from these essays, most importantly a new way of looking at media texts which is worlds apart from what she was taught at school. Many of the choices made by female slash writers also became more understandable when viewed through these lenses, although Sophie often ended up with more questions than she did answers, “that’s all very well but what about these types of stories?” She was particularly intrigued by the assertion that fan fiction is better explained as a form of theatre than of literature.
Two criticisms Sophie had were with the choices of essays selected. First, many of the essays dated from the early years of modern fandom and the very beginnings of fan studies research in the early-mid eighties. While she appreciates the value in looking at the subject at its beginning, many of the issues raised are no longer relevant in the vast majority of fandom today. For example, many of the essays discuss the way fanfiction is shared through edited zines at conventions, these days an almost unheard-of method of distribution.
Secondly, while fanfiction itself is broad and global, the essays here are focused on a very tiny subsection of the practice as a whole. In fact, you could get away with calling this the Star Trek Fan Fiction Studies Reader given that ten of the eleven essays mention the show to at least some degree. While modern fanfiction does, of course, share its roots with the stories shared in zines in the late 1960s, they are now worlds apart and it was hard to see much exploration of the way the medium has evolved.
Sophie took away a huge amount from these essays, most importantly a new way of looking at media texts which is worlds apart from what she was taught at school. Many of the choices made by female slash writers also became more understandable when viewed through these lenses, although Sophie often ended up with more questions than she did answers, “that’s all very well but what about these types of stories?” She was particularly intrigued by the assertion that fan fiction is better explained as a form of theatre than of literature.
Two criticisms Sophie had were with the choices of essays selected. First, many of the essays dated from the early years of modern fandom and the very beginnings of fan studies research in the early-mid eighties. While she appreciates the value in looking at the subject at its beginning, many of the issues raised are no longer relevant in the vast majority of fandom today. For example, many of the essays discuss the way fanfiction is shared through edited zines at conventions, these days an almost unheard-of method of distribution.
Secondly, while fanfiction itself is broad and global, the essays here are focused on a very tiny subsection of the practice as a whole. In fact, you could get away with calling this the Star Trek Fan Fiction Studies Reader given that ten of the eleven essays mention the show to at least some degree. While modern fanfiction does, of course, share its roots with the stories shared in zines in the late 1960s, they are now worlds apart and it was hard to see much exploration of the way the medium has evolved.
More...