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Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture
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"Get a life" William Shatner told Star Trek fans. Yet, as Textual Poachers argues, fans already have a "life," a complex subculture which draws its resources from commercial culture while also reworking them to serve alternative interests. Rejecting stereotypes of fans as cultural dupes, social misfits, and mindless consumers, Jenkins represents media fans as active produc
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Start your review of Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture
May 31, 2008
Sarah
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
acafans, cultural/media studies folk, slashers, people who really like de Certeau
Shelves:
media
I loved this book and am currently fangirling Henry Jenkins. Which is something I would like to discuss with him, because a) he wouldn't mock me and b) we could have an interesting conversation that engaged cultural studies without making me stabby. Also, I would like the Jenkinses to invite me over to watch Blakes7.
But, in all seriousness, Jenkins does an excellent job sussing out an ethnography of fan culture in a way that is both respectful and critical, that recognizes that it is playful, p ...more
But, in all seriousness, Jenkins does an excellent job sussing out an ethnography of fan culture in a way that is both respectful and critical, that recognizes that it is playful, p ...more
<3
Okay so many great things about this book.
1. It's a very good snapshot of fandom in the late 80s - the range of fandoms, types of fans, and most importantly the method of analysis were sound
2. the chapter on Beauty and the Beast fans was particularly interesting because it was the closest to non-fandom fans, in that the viewing practices could have occurred in other situations without necessarily being a 'fandom' thing - without the products of fannish activity, as such. Especially since Beau ...more
Okay so many great things about this book.
1. It's a very good snapshot of fandom in the late 80s - the range of fandoms, types of fans, and most importantly the method of analysis were sound
2. the chapter on Beauty and the Beast fans was particularly interesting because it was the closest to non-fandom fans, in that the viewing practices could have occurred in other situations without necessarily being a 'fandom' thing - without the products of fannish activity, as such. Especially since Beau ...more
I should have read this book 20ish years ago, back when I was slightly defensive (based on the mockery and cultural condemnation) about being a science fiction fan. Back in the day, it would have been revelatory and affirming. A professor, taking fandom seriously! Taking fans seriously! Who went to cons and listened to filk and read fan fiction! And talks about fandom in terms of Bakhtin, Barthes, and Benjamin!
There’s still a lot of good in the text. Great exploration of how different fan commu ...more
There’s still a lot of good in the text. Great exploration of how different fan commu ...more
A review of fan culture, including writers, vidders, and filkers. This is great just as sociological snapshots and a repository of many of the classically understood theories of fandom and how it operates. It's rather uncomfortably outdated, though, appearing before the internet became a fannish locus. I'm also pretty unhappy with the ways Jenkins fails to push this "poaching" model -- he's a media studies guy, and he never once questions the models
of commercial ownership and audience disenfranc ...more
of commercial ownership and audience disenfranc ...more
I've been familiar with Jenkins' work for years, but this is the first time that I have actually sat down and read one of his books in its entirety. I decided to start with Textual Poachers because if you dig deep enough in the citations of any paper in the field of fan studies, you will find this text.
Honestly, I'm kind of glad that I waited to read this book. Textual Poachers was published when internet fandom was in its very early years, so the text primarily concerns the fanzine era of media ...more
Honestly, I'm kind of glad that I waited to read this book. Textual Poachers was published when internet fandom was in its very early years, so the text primarily concerns the fanzine era of media ...more
For the first time in my admittedly long life I RENTED an e-book because the price of this books was out of the galaxy. I had the original which was a great book and wanted to see what changes the update had so I took it for a test drive before spending an exorbitant amount of money to purchase it. IT IS A RIP OFF. They have added to the original book - a conversation/interview twenty years later about the book, lots and lots of sales references to other authors who have since written about fan
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One of the big and important books on fans and fandom, containing things such as a study in "Beauty and the Beast", fan songs, and the everlasting and ever-asked question: "Why do women write homosexual love stories?"
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Jenkins does an excellent job sussing out an ethnography of fan culture in a way that is both respectful and critical, that recognizes that it is playful. This is great just as sociological snapshots and a repository of many of the classically understood theories of fandom and how it operates.
There’s still a lot of good in the text. Great exploration of how different fan communities operate; how different modes of reading and appropriation characterize different groups; of the evolution of slas ...more
There’s still a lot of good in the text. Great exploration of how different fan communities operate; how different modes of reading and appropriation characterize different groups; of the evolution of slas ...more
A fantastic analysis of media fandom. I especially enjoyed reading about the different aspects of fan production in the pre-internet days, e.g. photocopy zines, filk and VHS fanvidding techniques.
The chapter on gender is a little old-fashioned — for example, Jenkins describes all female-assigned slash writers/vidders as women, and seems unaware that huge amounts of slash fans are transmasculine. It would be interesting to see that topic examined in future publications.
The chapter on gender is a little old-fashioned — for example, Jenkins describes all female-assigned slash writers/vidders as women, and seems unaware that huge amounts of slash fans are transmasculine. It would be interesting to see that topic examined in future publications.
Fans: both good and bad! Reading this made me reflect a lot on my adolescence in the early 00s. I spent a lot of time reading fanfic. My opinions on gender expression, romance, and sexuality were definitely influenced by fanfic. Fan culture has forced the issue on a number of topics, particularly LGBTQ representation. I also think a lot has changed since the original publication of this book, and since this 2012 edition.
Despite not being familiar with or particularly interested in any of the fandoms/shows/texts used as the primary examples (which is my problem, not the fault of the author), I found this an engaging, thought-provoking, and well-argued overview of the various practices and tropes of fan culture.
Easily the best book on fanfiction that I read during the course of my research. It's equal parts well-written, interesting, and informative, covering the history of the word fan, fandom, and fan works.
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Classic tome on fannish history
One of the books by an author that was one of the Pioneers into Fan studies, its a must have for anyone who is interested in the field.
Super dense and slightly dated, but some AMAZING insights into what it means to be a fan.
One of the must reads for people studying popular media and fan studies. The interview included in this edition is excellent for putting the content in perspective.
This was pretty interesting, I read some sections for research for a paper.
Outdated but still incredibly valuable for anyone interested in fandom culture.
Lots of good info but some of it is dated. If you're a Star Trek fan, this is a good book for you.
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Amazing.
I think it's fairly to safe to say, some twenty years later, that Jenkins' book has become a landmark in fan culture studies. Essentially, he argues that, contrary to popular media theory at the time, television fans are not mindless consumers, but people quite willing to appropriate and be critical of the shows they view, as well as imbue them with their own cultural meanings. Throughout the course of the book, Jenkins looks at the basic state of fan study and community; characteristics of fand
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I loved coming across a line about 'on the wall of my office hangs a print by fan artist Jean Kluge' only to realize that on my bedroom wall hangs a print by fan artist Jean Kluge'. I love connections to things I read. As a fan fiction reader, I found fandom in 1995 and became a beta reader for a very prolific writer plus a few others over time. I collected stories, I traded tapes, I went to cons, I joined egroups and I exchanged emails with hordes of women. Texual Poachers was the very first bo
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In the middle of my Patron 2.0 research I came across Fans, Bloggers, and Games: Media Consumers in a Digital Age by Henry Jenkins (review coming). Knowing his books from my previous life as a film theory student, I added the book to my research pile. As that book is in some regards a sequel to Textual Poachers, I also checked it out to compare texts.
Textual Poachers is an examination of fandom, or the fen as they sometimes call themselves. As this one was written in the days before blogs, it lo ...more
Textual Poachers is an examination of fandom, or the fen as they sometimes call themselves. As this one was written in the days before blogs, it lo ...more
Apr 10, 2014
Elisabeth
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fandom,
non-fiction
I first read this book several years ago, and picked it up again because of the 20th anniversary re-release. It remains a spectacular piece of reading, a groundbreaking exploration of fans, fandom, and the relationship between media and audiences, from the perspective of a fan who is also firmly established in media studies. Eye-opening for fans and non-fans alike; sympathetic, intelligent, and readable; backed by hours of research and interviews; this book is a must-read for anyone interested i
...more
This book is a must read for anyone interested in pop culture studies or anyone who is a fan and wants to understand the history of fan movements. The author does an excellent job of showing how different fandoms found empowerment in their communities and in their own fan creations based off the pop culture they liked. While this book was originally written in 1992, it's still relevant to contemporary pop culture studies and if anything provides a fascinating historical perspective that allows t
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Jenkins creates a strong case for the scholarship that can be given to fandom communities. He looks at how fans write and recreate their own texts and how these consumers also become producers. Fans are textual poachers as they go on the “land” of the writer and “poach” or take only what they want, not necessarily what the writer may have intended. These fans then get to keep their “poached” material, although this material has little economic value, it contains its own expressive culture. The b
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This short review is also posted on my blog at http://inputs.wordpress.com/2008/12/2...
This is the seminal foundational text in terms of academic studies of fandom. Even if it was published in 1992 before the explosion of internet fandom and a more mainstream (even if still grudging) recognition of fan practices, it is still chock full of useful and current ideas.
This well written and highly readable book has done a great service in single handedly promoting the possibility of academic fan studi ...more
This is the seminal foundational text in terms of academic studies of fandom. Even if it was published in 1992 before the explosion of internet fandom and a more mainstream (even if still grudging) recognition of fan practices, it is still chock full of useful and current ideas.
This well written and highly readable book has done a great service in single handedly promoting the possibility of academic fan studi ...more
I had to read an excerpt of this book for class, but found myself picking up a copy for some light reading. Unlike most communication theory books, this was easy to read and breeze through. Jenkins' writing is simple and playful, yet critical of the subject without being, for lack of a better word, douchey.
Though it is a little out of date, many of Jenkins' theories still ring true today. I found myself completely engrossed in his concepts, evolution, and hierarchies of fandom, and would love t ...more
Though it is a little out of date, many of Jenkins' theories still ring true today. I found myself completely engrossed in his concepts, evolution, and hierarchies of fandom, and would love t ...more
An important book for cultural studies and fan culture, Textual Poachers provides an excellent primer and introduction to looking at fandom and its general practices.[return][return]While the book is now rather dated in both its examples (shows mentioned are all from the 1980s and very early 90s) and some of its subjects (filk music), the book is highly engaging and accessible, even for non-media scholars are just interested in the subject, or want to learn more about their hobby.
This is some literary theory book that goes way too in depth of fan fiction, actually taking it seriously. Who gives a crap about some lonely douche who writes Star Trek fiction in which Spock and Cpt. Kirk express their gay feelings for one another? Shit like that should just be ignored. Which it is for the most part if it weren't for stupid literary theory courses.
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