Perchè la fan culture

“Hello. My name is Henry. I am a fan. Somewhere in the late 1980s’, I got tired of people telling me to get a life. I wrote a book instead”
Henry Jenkins
Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts and Education at the University of Southern California

Perchè la fan culture?

Quando per la prima volta abbiamo affrontato questa domanda eravamo già tutte fan appassionate di qualcosa, membri attivi in svariate comunità online e attente fruitrici – ed estimatrici – di produzioni fandomiche (fanfictions, fanart, fanvideos) di varia provenienza.

Con gli anni il nostro interesse e la nostra conoscenza di questa sottocultura – che ormai non può neanche più essere considerata una sotto-cultura, come inizialmente postulato da Jenkins (1992) – si sono accresciuti, portandoci sempre più a capire il fondamentale impatto a livello culturale, sociale ed etico di un gruppo di persone in grado di lasciarsi coinvolgere dalle loro passioni e spesso trascinarle nel mondo, trovando in esse l’ispirazione per provare a renderlo migliore.

Per questo vogliamo parlare di fan: per dare loro l’importanza che crediamo meritino. Perché siamo convinti che ciò che li muove dentro e li rende tali sia anche quello che li aiuterà, nel piccolo delle loro comunità, a rendere il mondo un posto un po’ migliore di come l’abbiamo trovato. 

Suggerimenti di lettura by fanheart3

Fan culture, questo mondo sconosciuto…


L'articolo da cui tutto è iniziato...

fanheart3 marvel ethics

Fan, etica e diritti: la Marvel cambia il mondo (e molto è merito del fandom)

Articolo che riflette su come i film della Marvel, attraverso la passione e l’operato dei fan, stanno sostenendo il cambiamento sociale attualmente in corso e che tocca da vicino le questioni civili ed etiche al centro della società odierna.

Ma perché non cresci? Processo ai fan “eterni bambini”

Vostro Onore, l’accusa è chiara. I fan, i cosplayers, quella gente strana che parla per acronimi e hashtag (OTP, #feels, ecc.), sono delle persone infantili, che si rifiutano di crescere e sono per giunta un pericoloso esempio per le generazioni più giovani. ...Ma è davvero così?

Kings of Con: il potere del Fandom e le nuove frontiere della produzione

Negli ultimi giorni siamo stati testimoni a più riprese dell’influenza e del potere decisionale che il fandom esercita su produttori e distributori in tutto il mondo. Riflettiamo assieme sulla questione attraverso la serie televisiva "Kings of Con"

Visita il nostro Archivio

Alcuni fra i lavori che più hanno segnato la nostra storia personale di fan e, con essa, la storia della nostra società

"How Star Wars Changed the World. An interactive map of the people, companies, and technologies spawned by the Force" - Michelle Deveraux (Wired, 2005)
"How Star Wars Changed the World. An interactive map of the people, companies, and technologies spawned by the Force"
- Michelle Deveraux (Wired, 2005)
"...Fan fiction is a way of the culture repairing the damage done in a system where contemporary myths are owned by corporations instead of owned by the folk" - Henry Jenkins, American media scholar and academic
"...Fan fiction is a way of the culture repairing the damage done in a system where contemporary myths are owned by corporations instead of owned by the folk"
- Henry Jenkins, American media scholar and academic
"This is why 'Black Panther' is so important, […] ensuring that our children get to see themselves as heroes, too. The world of “Black Panther” offers a rare opportunity for black children to see characters in a fantasy world who look like them, in a story that is not only black but depicts our lineage out of Africa" - Frederick Joseph, author of #BlackPantherChallenge (Huffington Post, 2018)
"This is why 'Black Panther' is so important, […] ensuring that our children get to see themselves as heroes, too. The world of “Black Panther” offers a rare opportunity for black children to see characters in a fantasy world who look like them, in a story that is not only black but depicts our lineage out of Africa"
- Frederick Joseph, author of #BlackPantherChallenge (Huffington Post, 2018)
"The Harry Potter Alliance turns fans into heroes. We use the power of story and popular culture to make activism accessible and sustainable" - From the Harry Potter Alliance's mission
"The Harry Potter Alliance turns fans into heroes. We use the power of story and popular culture to make activism accessible and sustainable"
- From the Harry Potter Alliance's mission
"[...] We believe that fanworks are transformative and that transformative works are legitimate. The OTW represents a practice of transformative fanwork historically rooted in a primarily female culture" - Organization for Transformative Works (OTW)
"[...] We believe that fanworks are transformative and that transformative works are legitimate. The OTW represents a practice of transformative fanwork historically rooted in a primarily female culture"
- Organization for Transformative Works (OTW)
"Slash posits an explicit critique of traditional masculinity, trying to establish an homosocial-homoerotic continuum as an alternative to repressive and hierarchical male sexuality. Both partners retain equality and autonomy while moving into a more satisfying and committed relationship" - Henry Jenkins (Textual Poachers, 1992)
"Slash posits an explicit critique of traditional masculinity, trying to establish an homosocial-homoerotic continuum as an alternative to repressive and hierarchical male sexuality. Both partners retain equality and autonomy while moving into a more satisfying and committed relationship"
- Henry Jenkins (Textual Poachers, 1992)
"I think Hollywood has seen what fandom can do for a project. You can definitely see that when you go to Comic-con. - Felicia Day, actress, writer and web-series creator
"I think Hollywood has seen what fandom can do for a project. You can definitely see that when you go to Comic-con.
- Felicia Day, actress, writer and web-series creator
"[...] remembering just how momentous the Lord Of The Rings trilogy was, and the lasting effect Peter Jackson's first Tolkien trilogy had on the entertainment industry. [...] they also kickstarted an evolution of the movies that we can really only truly appreciate with the benefit of hindsight" - Ali Gray (IGN, 2012)
"[...] remembering just how momentous the Lord Of The Rings trilogy was, and the lasting effect Peter Jackson's first Tolkien trilogy had on the entertainment industry. [...] they also kickstarted an evolution of the movies that we can really only truly appreciate with the benefit of hindsight"
- Ali Gray (IGN, 2012)
"At a time when many forbidden activities were consigned to shadows, it’s no accident that the show’s most striking musical moment is sung by O’Brien. It goes: “Let the sun and light come streaming into my life.” This openheartedness gave substance to the camp; the send-up of conventionality captured the imagination of a certain subset of a generation, and resonates to this day" - Bill Wyman (Vulture, 2015)
"At a time when many forbidden activities were consigned to shadows, it’s no accident that the show’s most striking musical moment is sung by O’Brien. It goes: “Let the sun and light come streaming into my life.” This openheartedness gave substance to the camp; the send-up of conventionality captured the imagination of a certain subset of a generation, and resonates to this day"
- Bill Wyman (Vulture, 2015)
"The group's successful predictions of otherwise unlikely plot developments were sometime ascribed to their suspicion that Lynch might be personally monitoring the nets: 'I wonder how much we are writing our own show?'" - Henry Jenkins (Textual Poachers, 1992)
"The group's successful predictions of otherwise unlikely plot developments were sometime ascribed to their suspicion that Lynch might be personally monitoring the nets: 'I wonder how much we are writing our own show?'"
- Henry Jenkins (Textual Poachers, 1992)
"[...] the lives it's saved, the stories of people fighting their demons because Sam and Dean did, helping people move on from terrible losses, the fandom raising money for people in need [...] all that amazing stuff, to remind us of how we're a family, no matter what" - a fan. From Zubernis, Larsen (2014)
"[...] the lives it's saved, the stories of people fighting their demons because Sam and Dean did, helping people move on from terrible losses, the fandom raising money for people in need [...] all that amazing stuff, to remind us of how we're a family, no matter what"
- a fan. From Zubernis, Larsen (2014)
"The history of media fandom is at least in part the history of a series of organized efforts to influence porgraming decisions - some successful, most ending in failure" - Henry Jenkins (Textual Poachers, 1992)
"The history of media fandom is at least in part the history of a series of organized efforts to influence porgraming decisions - some successful, most ending in failure"
- Henry Jenkins (Textual Poachers, 1992)
why fan culture fanheart3
"I will unashamedly and unapologetically celebrate the joy and the warmth and the creativity of a community of people sharing something positive and beautiful and connective and if you don’t like it you are most welcome to very fuck off"
- Michael Sheen, actor and activist, talking about fans on his Twitter page
"[...] being able to realize, unexpectedly, that I could bring together the academic version of me, i.e. the scholar, with parts of my identity that felt as though they had been there all my life, which was about being a fan. That was a huge transformative moment for me" - Matt Hills, professor of Journalism and Media and director of Centre for Participatory Culture
"[...] being able to realize, unexpectedly, that I could bring together the academic version of me, i.e. the scholar, with parts of my identity that felt as though they had been there all my life, which was about being a fan. That was a huge transformative moment for me"
- Matt Hills, professor of Journalism and Media and director of Centre for Participatory Culture