Though the area of fan studies has been a prolific field of research for almost three decades, it is still marginal in Poland. The purpose of this paper is not to present types of fan activity, but to discuss the way they are researched and how this research was influenced by ethnography, Pierre Bourdieu’s Critical Theory and cultural studies (especially reception studies). The classic works of fan studies have established a still dominant paradigm of the political and subversive character of fan activity, which is followed by a notion of fandom as a heterotopia. In order to continue the research, it has been necessary for academics to establish a position of involvement instead of distance and to create ethical guidelines preventing fans from being colonized as the Other. However, that may cause petrification of fan studies.
The paper discusses the narrative about social marginalization and bullying of geeks and their justified revenge which has been widely popular in the first decade of the 21st Century. Said narrative is discussed as one of the factors which have contributed to the emergence of the incel identity, and is exemplified by Joss Whedon’s musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. At the moment of its creation the 2008 movie was supposed to portray the antagonism between the geeks and the jocks who torment them. Nowadays, in a changed social context, the movie’s message is very much different.
PL
Przedmiotem artykułu jest popularna na początku XXI wieku narracja o społecznym wykluczeniu i prześladowaniu nastoletnich geeków i ich słusznej zemście oraz to, w jaki sposób przyczyniła się ona do wytworzenia tożsamości niedobrowolnych celibatariuszy (inceli). Jako przykład modelowej narracji sprzyjającej wytworzeniu się incelskich fantazmatów omawiany jest musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog Jossa Whedona z 2008 roku. W momencie powstania film miał traktować o antagonizmie geeków i prześladujących ich jocków, a we współczesnym kontekście ma zupełnie odmienną wymowę.
The article discusses Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota series, which problematizes the liberal nature of contemporary utopias. The fictional 25th century, in which gender, nation states and the traditional understanding of the family–but not inequalities–have been abolished, is contrasted with the ideals a small percentage of the population. While the fictional reality is treated as a utopia by the majority of characters, the Utopians strive for a radical rupture from the contingency and pledge themselves to the unknown future. Since the states in Palmer’s world lack territory and it is impossible for Utopia to form an enclave on Earth, the Hive dedicates itself to terraforming Mars, with leaving Earth as their one common goal. The tasks the Utopians undertake are not rooted in a coherent homogenous project but seem to be grounded in a protest against the status quo naturalized by the rest of society. The Utopian strategy is treated as an example of China Miéville’s apophatic Marxism. Apophasis remains a powerful tool of critique and an incentive to take action.
PL
Tekst poświęcony jest problematyzującemu charakter współczesnych utopii cyklowi Terra Ignota Ady Palmer. Opisywanemu przez Palmer dwudziestemu piątemu wiekowi, w którym zniesiono płeć kulturową, państwa narodowe czy tradycyjny model rodziny, nie znosząc zarazem nierówności, przeciwstawiona zostaje postawa Utopian – niewielkiego ułamka fikcyjnej populacji. Choć ukazywana w powieściach rzeczywistość przez większość bohaterów traktowana jest jako utopia, Utopianie odmawiają przystania na nią, podejmując się nieustającej pracy w imię zerwania ze współczesnością i zobowiązując się poświęcić całe życie przyszłości. Utopia, ponieważ państwa pozbawione są terytoriów, nie może utworzyć na Ziemi przestrzennej enklawy i decyduje się na terraformację Marsa, choć nie dysponuje jednolitą wizją przyszłości i wspólnym celem poza opuszczeniem Ziemi. Działania Utopian nie są podejmowane w imię koherentnej wizji, a wypływają ze sprzeciwu wobec porządku faktycznego, znaturalizowanego przez większość społeczeństwa. Strategia Utopian omówiona zostaje jako przykład marksizmu apofatycznego, który postulował China Miéville. Niedostarczający pozytywnych projektów marksizm apofatyczny pozostaje potężnym narzędziem krytyki współczesności i bodźcem pobudzającym do działania.
This paper examines the history and the shape of contemporary fanfiction repositories. The notion of an archive – one that is often used to describe such spaces, and appears in their names – is contrasted with Griselda Pollock’s proposal of a virtual feminist museum. Though for decades there have been attempts at preserving fan fiction (mostly created by women, non-canonical and transgressive), the stories had been subjected to selection and censorship. With the disappearance of such practices, the repositories start to embody Pollock’s notion. At the same time, however, as the lack of censorship causes economic problems, the virtuality of such ‘museums’ no longer denotes their digital nature but their evanescence.
This paper is an attempt at a biopolitical interpretation of fan gatekeeping as a form of immunization – a defense mechanism that is supposed to protect the group and its identity against real or imaginary threats brought about by new fans. The discussion is based on an underresearched case of gatekeeping in the transformative fandom–the highly feminized fanfiction community in particular. The immunization tactics are exemplified by the reaction of the LiveJournal Star Trek community to the 2009 reboot of the franchise and the influx of new fans brought by the movie. The author provides a short description of the emergence of the Star Trek fandom, which was caused by gatekeeping in the first place, and analyzes the discursive practices of the more experienced fans and their at times impossible expectations, which were weaponized against the novices. The author concludes that the shift in the gatekeeping paradigm (from allowing/disallowing publication to the control of population) is a result of the popularization of Web 2.0.
PL
Niniejszy tekst stanowi propozycję biopolitycznej interpretacji fanowskiego gatekeepingu jako formy immunizacji, która ma na celu obronę tożsamości grupy przed prawdziwymi bądź wyimaginowanymi zagrożeniami niesionymi przez nowych fanów. Praktyka zostaje omówiona na przykładzie środowiska w rozważaniach nad gatekeepingiem zazwyczaj ignorowanego – fandomu transformującego (transformative fandom), a szczególnie najsilniej sfeminizowanego środowiska twórczyń i czytelniczek fanfikcji. Mechanizmy immunizacyjne omówione zostają na przykładzie reakcji zgromadzonego na platformie LiveJournal fandomu Star Treka w 2009 roku, kiedy to po premierze rebootu franczyzy doszło do masowego napływu nowych fanek. W artykule przywołana jest historia fandomu Star Treka jako wyłonionego w wyniku gatekeepingu oraz przeanalizowana zostaje działalność dyskursywna fanek dłużej znajdujących się w środowisku, które stawiały nowicjuszkom wymagania niekiedy niemożliwe do zrealizowania. W końcowej części tekstu zmiana paradygmatu gatekeepingu (od dopuszczania bądź odmawiania publikacji do kontroli populacji fandomu) zostaje powiązana z rozpowszechnieniem technologii Web 2.0, która umożliwiła publikację wszystkim użytkownikom.
The paper discusses the letter exchange between Maria von Herbert and Immanuel Kant as an early example of fan mail. While the past research on Herbert described her as a sharp but underappreciated philosopher, in this paper she is treated primarily as a fangirl. The article discusses her correspondence with Kant (and Kant’s correspondence about her exchanged with others), her use of religious language as best means of conveying her fascination with an inaccessible celebrity, the parasocial interaction of these two, and the manner in which a hysterical discourse has been imposed on the young woman, not unlike the fate of contemporary fangirls.
The author of this paper uses Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory to discusses the anti-shipper movement and its call for exclusion of problematic content from online repositories of fanwork. Anti-shippers, who oppose indiscriminate inclusion of potentially harmful content and its creators in the field of fan production, are a relatively new and vocal faction inside the field. While the research on antis has focused on their methods of harassment and its effects on fan community, this paper discusses the conditions inside the field before the movement’s emergence, focusing on the affordances and terms of service of online fanwork repositories. The author proposes to treat the question of exclusion of sensitive content and its creators as one concerning the field’s autonomy, and presents the anti controversy as a way for newcomers to establish their position in the field and change its problematic.
The subject of this article is the Internet activity and creativity of the elderly, understood as a form of radical sincerity. While the most popular take on the digital divide emphasizes lack of Internet access or technological competences, this paper focuses on the exclusion of the elderly users from the legitimate discourse of the Internet. The author uses Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of distinction to discuss the role of distance and irony in the establishment of legitimate taste and its similarity to the irony-laden meme culture. The online meme discourse is contrasted with a particular form of creativity of the elderly, who do not only refuse to create an online persona but whose art is the perfect exemplification of Bourdieuian “working-class aesthetics.” The images – considered tawdry by the gatekeepers of legitimate taste – are a result of emulation of analog artifacts (such as postcards and greeting cards) in the new media. Their popularity among the elderly Internet users is caused by a non-selective transposition of offline relationships onto one’s activity in the social media.
One of the main concerns of Bruno Jasieński’s works is the role of the flesh and the violence against it. For Jasieński, the phantasm of revolution is intertwined with physiology, especially with hunger and glut. The dialectical materialism is overshadowed by biological necessity. The violence that necessity brings is presented as abstract arithmetics or as something that concerns the flesh and not the person. Jasieński divides the society into the suffering from unjust violence hungry masses (the proletariat), and the overfed (the aristocracy, the clergy and the bourgeoisie). The latter are shown as a not entirely human group against which the proposed acts of violence are legitimate. The concepts established decades after Jasieński’s death make it possible to analyze his works as a biopolitical project. The key terms in that analysis are bios, dzoe, and homines sacri (people, who can be killed without a murder being committed).
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