Journal of Fandom Studies, The - Volume 11, Issue 2-3, 2023

This article investigates the evolving definition of the term ‘K-drama’ and its authenticity. Using a case study of the Netflix series Squid Game, I examine fan discourse surrounding the series and the extent to which it fits within the traditional K-drama framework. By analysing performative commentaries from TikTok users, as well as non-users who encounter TikTok content on other social media platforms, I aim to understand how audience engagement and platform-specific features contribute to the redefinition of K-drama. Additionally, this article discusses the broader implications of the ways in which platforms like TikTok shape the visibility and understanding of K-dramas among global audiences. Viewers’ attempts to (over-) analyse the drama through the lens of Korean culture connect this debate with orientalism, cultural essentialism and gatekeeping from Korean popular culture enthusiasts.

The series You, which has become part of the cultural zeitgeist since the first season became available on Netflix in December 2018, has introduced a protagonist at the same time in line and notably different from other serialized serial killers. By establishing the main character, played by former Gossip Girl heartthrob Penn Badgley, not only as the protagonist but romantic lead in a format blurring conventions from both the psychological thriller and the romance, the series challenges viewers to negotiate their attraction for a television character that seems ‘unloveable’. Portrayed as both a (literal) stalker and serial killer in the series, how viewers talk about Joe Goldberg underlines an understanding of the contemporary monstrous body as a site of manifestation. Through a discourse analysis of comments posted on Twitter and YouTube about the show and its main character, this article highlights how viewers interrogate questions of monstrosity and morality through the visuality of the body. As an interpretive repertoire centred on Embodiment, highlighting the attractive and non-threatening body functions as a practice of meaning-making that is aware of, but does not necessarily follow an ‘intended’ reading by the producers of popular culture.

Death metal is the most brutal music in existence. It is a subgenre of music that seeks pure heaviness punctuated by guttural vocalizations more akin to a wounded beast than a human singing lyrics. To the mainstream world, death metal is sometimes misunderstood and enigmatic: how do people listen to such harsh, aggressive music? Death metal fans create a unique corner of fandom, an insular group joined together by a passion for music that is frequently rejected and feared by normative society. This fandom has developed into much more for many fans: it has become a community that has further developed into a world-view. This research aims to argue the theoretical connections between the fandom of death metal music and the studies undertaken through terror management theory (TMT). The central idea of TMT is that our fear of death serves as the primary driver of our actions. The primary aim of this article is to explore the question of how a genre of music that is focused primarily on death serves as a buffer against existentialist dread and considerations of our own mortality? Death metal fandom occupies a unique, dichotomous territory within TMT, as it serves as both a mortality salient (MS) (a threat to the world-views of the mainstream) and a preventative measure against Death Thought Accessibility (thoughts and considerations of our own deaths). Death metal fandom, often vilified by mainstream culture and frequently perceived as a monstrous and violent outlier to normative society, is ironically non-political and not a true threat to the establishment and its tenets. The death metal community does not attack the mainstream, but it is attacked by the mainstream. Threatened by the rejection of beauty and musical normativity exhibited by death metal, the world-view of the mainstream is threatened, causing it to lash out at that which differs from it. This research intends to explore potential assemblages through a mapping of connectives untethered by methodological expectations. It will explore this irony through a developed exploration of death metal fans, the music and the brutality that has helped create a community of fandom that is more supportive and effective at warding off fears of mortality than might initially be expected.

The three-part miniseries Quiz (ITV 2020) dramatizes the scandal surrounding purported cheating on the series Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (hereafter WWtBaM) in 2001. This article shall examine specific discourses which the miniseries portrays and critiques, in particular the representation of fans, the dramatized preconceptions about fans by the WWtBaM production team and television as a manipulative, profit-driven medium. It ultimately connects the miniseries to a number of contemporary discourses relating to history, television and collective memory to analyse how, as a dramatization, the miniseries invites the audience to both reconsider and recontextualize the events it portrays with the ostensible benefit of hindsight and new perspectives on an emotive event from living memory.

When reflecting on the passage of time and how it intersects with our fan identity and perception of self, we often find individuals who identify as ‘life-long’ or ‘long-term’ fans. The intersection of time and fandom are often examined in fan studies, as is evident in the plethora of studies on long-term/life-long fans. Despite the prominent use of terms like ‘long-term’ or ‘life-long’, such concepts are rarely explained or critically examined in the literature. Therefore, the current study aims to unpack such terms and reflect on what makes one a life-long fan. Based on an open-ended online questionnaire completed by 94 self-identified life-long/long-term fans of movies, music, anime, sports and video games, this study delves into the subjective construction of time and temporality among fans. It explores the process of or the threshold to becoming a life-long/long-term fan, and the importance of the term to one’s identity and status in the community. By examining life-long/long-term fans, this article demonstrates how time can serve as cultural capital, play a significant role in the fan’s identity work and create a sense of belonging and certainty.

This article employs distant reading to examine discursive norms for expressing emotion in comments on Harry Potter fanfiction on Archive of Our Own (AO3). Using text analysis tools to identify collocational patterns, the article shows how fanfiction engages this community and how community members express their engagement in accordance with community discourses. The analysis transcends the level of individual utterances by examining large-scale patterns in the data. Comparing comments for three fanfiction genres (angst, fluff and hurt/comfort) reveals three patterns. First, commenters frequently describe stories about suffering in positive terms. Second, metaphors likening fanfiction consumption to food consumption are prevalent in all genres. Commenters also use language blending physical and emotional sensations. Finally, commenters describe stories about positive emotions using negative metaphors of rot, decay, gluttony or overload. This use of positive or negative language need not indicate positive or negative judgements but instead reveals discursive fields to which fanfiction reading is linked. Additionally, comments indicate that fanfiction is used to influence emotional states. These findings contribute to an understanding of the impact of fanfiction within its community and raise questions regarding the role of emotion in fanfiction reading.

Review of: Emo: How Fans Defined a Subculture, Judith Fathallah (2020)

Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 214 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-60938-724-2, p/bk, $29.95

ISBN 978-1-60938-725-9, e-book, $29.95

Review of: A Fan Studies Primer: Method, Research, Ethics, Paul Booth and Rebecca Williams (eds) (2021)

Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 308 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-60938-809-6, p/bk, $35.00