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A review by queenoferebor
The Fan Fiction Studies Reader by
2.0
As someone who is writing her master's thesis on fanfiction, I thought this books would save my life and give me a startpoint on the field. However, now I feel like I've wasted time, energy and money in this. Don't get me wrong, the book is good, and the articles/studies/papers on it are of great interest, but I think it miserably fails at its aim of being an introduction to the field. Yes, some of the texts included here are what one might call "foundational" texts, but just on the first pages I realised that the title was misleading:
FanFiction Studies reader, but the texts come from the field of Fan Studies (there are a couple of texts which don't have anything to do with fanfiction per se), and the focus on fanfiction is based on a Western perspective, within media fandoms and basicaly dealing with Star Trek. The perspective is too narrow. Where is the Japanese/Manga influence? And the literary fandoms? And what about a simple explanation of what is fanfiction? Now, the reference section is a goldmine for me, so I'll give them that.
Other than that, this book is not for someone who is trying to get into the world of fanfiction, certainly. It is a purely scholarly work. I can't say it's a bad book, and I don't want to dismiss the editors effort- they did a pretty good job, but I feel it didn't meet its purposes and for that I'm giving it 2 stars.
FanFiction Studies reader, but the texts come from the field of Fan Studies (there are a couple of texts which don't have anything to do with fanfiction per se), and the focus on fanfiction is based on a Western perspective, within media fandoms and basicaly dealing with Star Trek. The perspective is too narrow. Where is the Japanese/Manga influence? And the literary fandoms? And what about a simple explanation of what is fanfiction? Now, the reference section is a goldmine for me, so I'll give them that.
Other than that, this book is not for someone who is trying to get into the world of fanfiction, certainly. It is a purely scholarly work. I can't say it's a bad book, and I don't want to dismiss the editors effort- they did a pretty good job, but I feel it didn't meet its purposes and for that I'm giving it 2 stars.