2008-2012), I argue that the response to this invitation results in the collaborative production of the mythologised star narrative. Continuing to the Merlin fandom (Jones, Murphy, et al. Beginning with the fandom relating to The Lord of the Rings (Jackson 2001-2003), I argue that the star text as produced on New Media platforms invites viewers to engage with it and feel a sense of intimacy and familiarity with the star. Using Real Person Fanworks and the fan communities that produce them as a case study, I argue that New Media are employed by the entertainment industry to produce newly open star texts, and these texts invite the collaboration of fans in producing the star narrative. This thesis investigates the star/fan relationship at our current cultural moment.
In short, blockbuster intermediality is not only indicative of the economics of post-literary adaptation, but it also exemplifies a corporate strategy that aims for the strategic co-option of potentially unruly niche audiences.
These superhero franchises – neither remakes nor adaptations in the familiar sense – are also paradigmatic byproducts of an adaptive management system that is possible through the appropriation of the economics of continuity and the co-option of online cultic networking. That is, its preferred spectators are often those opinionated and outspoken fan cultures whose familiarity with the texts is addressed and whose influence within a more dispersed film-going community is acknowledged, courted and potentially colonized. Through a case study of The Avengers (2012) and other recently adapted Marvel Entertainment properties, it will be demonstrated that the reimagined, rebooted and serialized intermedial text is fundamentally fan oriented: a deliberately structured and marketed invitation to certain niche audiences to engage in comparative activities.
0 kommentar(er)
