Cult Media, Fandom, and Textiles: Handicrafting as Fan Art

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Description

This book is the first to explore handicrafting practiced by media fans, their online fan communities and the multiple meanings they create. Based on in-depth ethnographic research into fans on the online social network for knitters, crocheters and crafters, Ravelry, Brigid Cherry explores textile craft by fans as both an artistic practice and transformative fan work. Including case studies of projects inspired by Doctor Who, True Blood, Firefly, Harry Potter, Sherlock and steampunk, the book engages with many forms of fan production, including fan art, fan fiction and cosplay. Fans of popular films and TV shows are increasingly engaging with textile crafts as a way of reworking, reimagining and engaging with cult media texts. Proving a global phenomenon amongst fan cultures in the digital media sphere, traditional film and TV audiences are forging their fan identities and participating in wider fan communities in innovative ways through online craft forums and blogs that showcase their knitting, crochet, spinning and dyeing projects. Exploring key debates from textile and media theory, surrounding gender, domesticity, the culture industries, audiences and fan culture, this book is essential reading for students of textiles, media studies, fashion, cultural and gender studies.

Reviews

In this original and provocative study, Brigid Cherry investigates the role of knitting in fan culture, sparking new questions about production, consumption, and the intersection of materials and media. Students, many of whom participate in these subcultures in their daily lives, will find much that is relevant and appealing here. -- Becky Peterson, University of New Mexico, USA
Cult Media offers an enlightening and entertaining piece of fanthropological research, which will appeal to both scholars and fans. In this revealing and sincere text, Brigid Cherry addresses the experiences, assumptions, and implications of the lesser-known worlds of fan handcrafters. -- Theresa M. Winge, Michigan State University, USA
Cult Media, Fandom and Textiles is a wonderful addition to the field of Fan Studies that explores the experience of being a fan through handcrafting projects. By positioning the fan as creator, Cherry brilliantly juxtaposes contemporary forms of popular culture devotion, performance, and identity with more traditional and accepted understandings of the term craft. This approach is truly innovative, raising and addressing questions about belonging, making and being within a media society. A real interdisciplinary text that is both academic and wholly readable. -- Joanne Turney, Winchester School of Art, Southampton University, UK

Author Bio

Brigid Cherry is a Research Fellow in Screen Media in the School of Arts and Humanities at St Marys University, Twickenham, UK.