Syllabus
PDF for this document: fan-culture-syllabus.pdf
FMST 85: FAN CULTURE
TTh 11:20-12:35, Science Center L32
Screenings: T 7:30-10 p.m., Science Center 199
(Note: some weeks do not have screenings)
Professor Bob Rehak
brehak1, LPAC 204
Hours: W 10-12 & 1-4
Texts
(Books are on reserve at McCabe; please bring all current readings to class)
- Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World (Jonathan Gray, Cornel Sandvoss, C. Lee Harrington [Eds], 2007)
- Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Particpatory Culture (Henry Jenkins, 1992)
- Additional readings marked (X) distributed via course blog
Overview
Since the emergence of mass media, audiences have been actively invested in making and sharing meanings based on the stories, narrative worlds, characters, and performers of popular culture. In reception and cultural studies from the 1970s through the early 1990s, the figure of the fan became increasingly central as a site for investigating complex questions of pleasure, power, agency, and identity. More recently, fans and fan culture have moved into the mainstream, playing an important – even organizing – role in the creation, marketing, and circulation of popular media.
With this in mind, the semester will be divided into two halves. In the first, we will examine historical fan studies, focusing on theory, debates, and research about fandom as a “scandalous” subculture. In the second, we will turn to a consideration of the contemporary mediascape, approaching fandom as a “superculture” that, in a certain sense, sets the agenda for contemporary media industries and culture.
The course format blends close readings and engaged discussions with screenings of television, feature films, and other materials. We will investigate media forms and practices less as texts “in themselves” than as units of social exchange, charged with personal and collective meanings, which dynamically shape the terrain of consumption and production, politics and entertainment, legal regulation, taste, and gender that constitutes our intensely lived experience of media.
Please note that you may encounter concepts and content in this course that challenge your standards of taste, quality, and political belief. I encourage you to voice your reactions and opinions, but always to do so in a courteous and respectful manner that acknowledges the diversity and value of difference. Our classroom is first and foremost a community, dedicated to the free expression of ideas and productive, supportive conversation. Remember: in fandom, one person’s laughing matter may be another’s deeply cherished passion!
Assignments
- 30% Blog activity (Due: Throughout semester)
- 15% Response paper 1 on Textual Poachers (Due: February 28)
- 15% Response paper 2 on Fandom (Due: April 22)
- 10% Fan artifact presentation & blog writeup (Due: Once during semester)
- 20% Final colloquium & paper (Due: Week 14)
- 10% In-class participation (Due: Throughout semester)
Blogging
A central component of FMST 85 will be your contributions to, and interaction with, the course blog. Through the blog we will explore ideas, raise questions, and continue conversations that don’t fit neatly into our class meetings. Our blog is also a space to share links to relevant and interesting content, including websites, images, videos, music, and podcasts.
- Blog address: http://fan-culture.swarthmore.edu
- Username: your email/network username (e.g. brehak1)
- Default password: filmblog (can be changed by following the MyProfile link in the Dashboard)
Each week, I will prompt you by posting a question or idea to respond to. However, you are expected to go beyond those prompts in contributing to our collective conversation. Rather than assigning a set quota for online participation, I will assess your performance based on how thoughtfully and significantly you contribute to the blog’s “health” throughout the term:
Excellent
Sustained, consistent, and plentiful contributions that strike a solid balance between new posts and responses to others’ postings. Substantive, relevant, and creative contributions rooted in course content and addressing a range of approaches and materials. Specific and well-articulated connections to readings, topics, and discussions. Honest scrutiny of your own ideas and beliefs. Generous and friendly tone toward others (including the authors we’re reading), making room for everyone to express themselves. As semester goes on, identification and discussion of overarching themes, drawing out both subtle linkages and grand themes that unify our study of fandom.
Acceptable
Regular participation in discussions and occasional original posts, or focus on one to the exclusion of the other. Some relevance to course topics and conversations. Tendency toward brief or breezy posts. Emphasis on personal opinion and judgments of value with occasional reference to others’ ideas. Repetition of previously made points, or of what others are saying. Moderate to little sketching of connections and identification of ongoing themes. Some evidence of evolution in thinking by the end.
Poor
Infrequent, sporadic, or half-hearted participation. Careless or unclear writing. Lack of relevance to course topics. Misconstrual or distortion of others’ positions. Personal attacks.
I will give a tutorial in class on Jan 24 to familiarize you further with the blog. For more technical assistance, you can contact Liz Evans (eevans1) or the ITS Help Desk, or consult the WordPress documentation at http://mu.wordpress.org/docs/.
More information
I will give out detailed information on other assignments as they approach.
CALENDAR
TP = Textual Poachers; F = Fandom; X = readings available on blog
Week 1 (Jan 22 & 24): Course Introduction
Tues: Course overview, introduction
Thurs: Blog workshop, generate questions for term
Read: Introduction (TP)
Blog for weekend: Post fanifesto
Week 2 (Jan 29 & 31): Framing Fan Studies and Texts
Tues: Read: each other’s fanifesos, Introduction (F)
Screen: Love and Death on Long Island (Richard Kwietniowski, 1997), 94 min.
Thurs: Read: Fish (X), Hall (X), Barthes (X)
Week 3 (Feb 5 & 7): Reception, Celebrity, and Gender: The Historical Fan
Tues: Read: Fiske (X), Hebdige (X)
Screen: Nurse Betty (Neil LaBute, 2000), 110 min.
Thurs: Read: Radway (X), Seiter et al (X). Recommended: Bacon-Smith (X)
Week 4 (Feb 12 & 14): Textual Poachers I
Tues: Read: Ch. 1 (TP)
Screen: “Amok Time” (Joseph Pevney, 1967), 50 min.; Trekkies (Roger Nygard, 1999), 86 min.
Thurs: Read: Ch. 2 (TP)
Week 5 (Feb 19 & 21): Textual Poachers II
Tues: Read: Ch 3 (TP)
Screen: Episodes of Twin Peaks & Beauty and the Beast
Thurs: Read: Ch. 4 (TP)
Week 6 (Feb 26 & 28): Textual Poachers III
Tues: Read: Ch. 5 & 6 (TP)
Screen: Selection of slash vids
Thurs: Read: Ch. 7 (TP)
** Due: Response paper 1
Week 7 (Mar 4 & 6): Fandom from Cult to Convergence
Tues: Guest speaker: Julie Levin Russo, Brown U.
Read: Jenkins, “Cultural Logic of Media Convergence” and “Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars?” (X)
Screening: Special presentation by Julie Levin Russo, 7 p.m., Science Center 199
Thurs: No class meeting
Spring Break
Week 8 (Mar 18 & 20): Fandom as Superculture
Tues: Read: Afterword (F), Stein and Busse (X)
Screening: Star Trek: New Voyages (2004), 40 min.; Galaxy Quest (Roger Nygard, 1999), 102 min.
Thurs: Read: Anderson (X), Tushnet (F)
Week 9 (Mar 25 & 27): Cult Films and “High” Fandom
Tues: Read: Sconce (X), Eco (X), Sontag (X)
Screening: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975), 100 min.
Thurs: Pearson (F), Tulloch (F), Hills (F), McKee (F)
Week 10 (Apr 1 & 3): Subcreation, Seriality, and Media Franchises
Tues: Read: Tolkien (X), Thompson (X), Kennedy (X)
Screening: Ringers: Lord of the Fans (Carlene Cordova, 2005), 97 min.
Week 11 (Apr 8 & 10): New Fan Texts and Contexts
Tues: Read: Scodari (F), Cavicchi (F), McCourt & Burkart (F)
Screening: Green Street Hooligans (Lexi Alexander, 2005), 109 min.; A Hard Day’s Night (Richard Lester, 1964), 87 min.
Thurs: Read: McBride & Bird (F), Gosling (F), Theodoropoulou (F)
Week 12 (Apr 15 & 17): Local and Global Fandom
Tues: Read: Longhurst et al (F), Couldry (F), Brooker (F)
Screening: Otaku no video (Takeshi Mori, 1991), 100 min.
Thurs: Read: Harrington & Bielby (F), Penathambekar (F), Chin (F), Ciecko & Lee (F)
Week 13 (Apr 22 & 24): Mutations of Celebrity
Tues: Read: Sconce (F), Click (F)
Screening: Who the Hell Is Pete Doherty (Roger Pomphrey, 2006), 74 min.
** Due: Response paper 2
Thurs: No class meeting
Week 14 (Apr 29 & May 1): Colloquium & Course Wrapup