Solent Home | SEA Home | About | Policies

Solent University Logo

Solent Electronic Archive
SEA HOMEPAGE Back to SEA homepage

SOLENT ELECTRONIC ARCHIVE

  • Home
  • About
  • Policies
  • Latest Additions
  • Search
  • Browse by Year
  • Browse by Subject
  • Browse by Faculty
  • Browse by Creator

USER MENU

Login

‘Except that Joss Whedon is God’: fannish attitudes to statements of author/ity.

Fathallah, Judith. (2016). ‘Except that Joss Whedon is God’: fannish attitudes to statements of author/ity. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 2016, 19 (4), pp. 459-76

[img]
Preview
PDF
except.pdf

Download (261kB) | Preview

Abstract

Early internet and fan studies theorists believed the New Media context and work of the active fan would bring theories like the Death of the Author to fruition. Contemporary fan studies scholars are more reserved, acknowledging diversity in fan attitudes. Through analysis of a LiveJournal article with comments on authors’ views concerning fanfiction, this article demonstrates the paradoxical investment in various forms of authorial authority espoused across fan communities, as well as defiance and repudiation of them. I argue that while the authors quoted are denied legitimate authority through various tactics, the concept of an originating, proprietary authorship, with attendant capitalist powers and rights, retains much influence. The concept of the author holds more power than the individual figures attempting to wield it, and fans attribute or deny the power of authorship to particular figures according to their public personas and cultural politics. In this sense, fans may withhold or bestow legitimation through the operation of Foucault’s author-function, interpreting text and statements of authority through the public persona of the author.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: SOCIAL SCIENCE > Cultural Studies
ARTS, MEDIA AND HUMANITIES > Film and Television
ARTS, MEDIA AND HUMANITIES > Literature and Writing
Faculties: Research & Information Unit
Depositing User: Judith Fathallah
Date Deposited: 07 Feb 2019 18:26
Last Modified: 07 Feb 2019 18:26
URI: https://ssudl.solent.ac.uk/id/eprint/4014

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Disclaimer | Privacy policy © Solent University

Main switchboard tel: 023 8201 3000