“YOU, MY FRIEND, ARE ALL THAT’S LEFT OF THEIR RELIGION”: STAR WARS, FANDOM AND NOSTALGIA
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Abstract
A long time ago (though not in a galaxy far, far away), fandom was seen at best as an offshoot of cultural studies, and at worst, as an acceptable target of ridicule and Othering. Since the early 1990s and the pioneering work of scholars like Henry Jenkins and Camille Bacon-Smith, however, fandom has gained respectability (and profitability) as both a multidisciplinary area of study and a lucrative part of commercial popular culture. Today, we live in an unprecedented time: not only have fandom and nerd culture become mainstream, but they have joined forces with rhizomatic web platforms and formed a digital age where transmediality reigns supreme, and where stories have become Intellectual Properties. Nowhere is this more clearly seen than in Star Wars – once a film series authored by a single creator, now a megacorporation-owned franchise with multiple authors, narratives, and storytelling platforms. As a result, the Star Wars fandom, never an inviting space, has fractured even more and turned to nostalgia as a source of comfort, with predictably volatile results, as different fandom factions lay sole claim to historicity and authenticity. Star Wars thus occupies the perfect liminal space between fandom and hatedom, present and past, nostalgia and schmaltz. Using contemporary fan studies scholarship, this paper examines the role of nostalgia in today’s Star Wars fandom, with the emphasis on media convergence and cultural wars in digital social spaces, thus exploring popular convergence culture at large.
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