Carole M. Cusack and Venetia Laura Delano Robertson, Foreword: The Study of Fandom and Religion (original) (raw)

Carole M. Cusack, Venetia Laura Delano Robertson and John W. Morehead (eds), The Sacred in Fantastic Fandom: Essays on the Intersection of Religion and Pop Culture, McFarland Publishing, 2019, pp. 1-13.

Abstract

This project was originally conceived by John Morehead as an academic yet accessible anthology of papers that explore the sacred aspects of “fantastic” fandoms, those communities and personal engagements that celebrate texts of the fantasy and science fiction genres. When we, Carole Cusack and Venetia Robertson, were invited by John and McFarland to contribute to the volume and complete the project as the editors we were excited to see the breadth and depth of the contributions. The essays that have been selected for this volume represent innovative intellectual engagements with the relationship of religion to fandom. A considerable portion of the authors are early career researchers and, with the field being emergent and quickly evolving, the studies here are appositely fresh. While some of the fandoms and their media sources that feature in these pages have been subject to much academic assessment over the years, the following essays offers an insightful take on what these cultures can tell us about spirituality in the contemporary world.

Loading...

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.

References (61)

  1. Alvermann, Donna E. and Margaret C. Hagood. "Fandom and Critical Media Literacy." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 43, no. 5 (2000): 436-446.
  2. Bell, Catherine. "Paradigms Behind (and Before) the Modern Concept of Religion." History and Theory 45, no.
  3. Cavicchi, Daniel. Tramps Like Us: Music and Meaning Among Springsteen Fans. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
  4. Crome, Andrew. "Reconsidering Religion and Fandom: Christian Fan Works in My Little Pony Fandom." Culture and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Journal 15, no. 4 (2014): 399-418.
  5. Cusack, Carole M. Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction, and Faith. Farnham and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010.
  6. Davidsen, Markus Altena. "The Elven Path and the Silver Ship of the Valar: two Spiritual Groups Based on J. R. R. Tolkien's Legendarium." In Fiction, Invention, and Hyper-Reality, edited by Carole M. Cusack and Pavol Kosnáč, 15-30. London and New York: Routledge, 2017.
  7. Duffett, Mark. "False Faith or False Comparison? A Critique of the Religious Interpretation of Elvis Fan Culture." Popular Music and Society 26, no. 4 (2003): 513-522.
  8. Gwineth. "Appendix 1.2 Ilsaluntë Valion," in Fiction, Invention, and Hyper-Reality, edited by Carole M. Cusack and Pavol Kosnáč, 34-6. London and New York: Routledge, 2017.
  9. Hills, Matt. "Media Fandom, Neoreligiosity, and Cult(ural) Studies." The Velvet Light Trap 46 (2000): 73-84.
  10. Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture. New York: Routledge, 2005
  11. Jerslev, Anne. "Sacred Viewing: Emotional Responses to The Lord of the Rings." In The Lord of the Rings Popular Culture in Global Context, edited by Ernest Mathjis, 206-221. London: Wallflower Press, 2006.
  12. Jindra, Michael. "Star Trek Fandom as a Religious Phenomenon" Sociology of Religion 55, no. 1 (1994): 27-51
  13. ---.'"Star Trek to Me is a Way of Life": Fan Expressions of Star Trek Philosophy'. In Star Trek and Sacred Ground: Explorations of Star Trek, Religion, and American Culture, ed. Jennifer E. Porter and Darcee L. McLaren, 217-230. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1999.
  14. Kirby, Danielle. Fantasy and Belief: Alternative Religions, Popular Narratives, and Digital Cultures. Durham, UK: Acumen, 2013.
  15. Laderman, Gary. Sacred Matters: Celebrity Worship, Sexual Ecstasies, the Living Dead, and Other Signs of Religious Life in the United States New York: New Press, 2009.
  16. ---. "Sacred & Profane: From Bono To The Jedi Police-Who Needs God?" Religion Dispatches, June 22, 2009. http://religiondispatches.org/isacredi-from-bono- to-the-jedi-police-who-needs-god/ (accessed May 20, 2018).
  17. Lambert, Yves. "Religion in Modernity as a New Axial Age: Secularization or New Religious Forms?" Sociology of Religion 60, no. 3 (1999): 303-333.
  18. Lyon, David. Jesus in Disneyland: Religion in Postmodern Times. Cambridge and Malden, MA: Polity, 2000.
  19. MacWilliams, Mark and Joanne Punzo Waghorne, Deborah Sommer, Cybelle Shattuck, Kay A. Read, Selva J. Raj, Khaled Keshk, Deborah Halter, James Egge, Robert M. Baum, Carol S. Anderson and Russell T. McCutcheon. "Religion/s Between Covers: Dilemmas of the World Religions Textbook." Religion Studies Review 31, nos 1-2 (2005): 1-35.
  20. McAvan, Emily. The Postmodern Sacred: Popular Culture Spirituality in the Science Fiction, Fantasy and Urban Fantasy Genres. Jefferson: McFarland, 2012.
  21. McCloud, Sean. "Popular Culture Fandoms, the Boundaries of Religious Studies, and the Project of the Self." Culture and Religion 4, no. 2 (2003): 187-206.
  22. Nelson, Victoria. Gothicka. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2012. Otter Bickerdike, J. The Secular Religion of Fandom. London: Sage, 2016.
  23. Porter, Jennifer. "Implicit Religion in Popular Culture: The Religious Dimensions of Fan Communities." Implicit Religion 12, no. 3 (November 2009): 271-280.
  24. Richardson, James T. "Definitions of Cult: From Sociological-Technical to Popular- Negative." Review of Religious Research 34, no. 4 (1993): 348-356.
  25. Robertson, Venetia Laura Delano. "Salvation and Animation: Religion, Fandom and Identityin the Romantic Narratives of Mystics and Soulbonders," In Fiction, Invention, and Hyper-Reality, edited by Carole M. Cusack and Pavol Kosnáč, 58-78. London and New York: Routledge, 2017.
  26. Sandvoss, Cornel. Fans: The Mirror of Consumption. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005.
  27. Smith, Jonathan Z. "Religion, Religions, Religious." In Critical Terms for Religious Studies, edited by Mark C. Taylor, 269-284. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
  28. Veissière, Samuel. "Varieties of Tulpa Experiences: Sentient Imaginary Friends, Embodied Joint Attention, and Hypnotic Sociality in a Wired World." Somatosphere, April 3, 2015. http://somatosphere.net/2015/04/varieties-of-tulpa-experiences- sentient-imaginary-friends-embodied-joint-attention-and-hypnotic-sociality-in-a- wired-world.html.
  29. Donna E. Alvermann and Margaret C. Hagood, "Fandom and Critical Media Literacy," Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 43, no. 5 (2000), 436-446.
  30. Yves Lambert, "Religion in Modernity as a New Axial Age: Secularization or New Religious Forms?" Sociology of Religion 60, no. 3 (1999), 311.
  31. Carole M. Cusack, Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith (Farnham and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010), 9.
  32. David Lyon, Jesus in Disneyland: Religion in Postmodern Times (Cambridge and Malden, MA: Polity, 2000), 1-19.
  33. Andrew Crome, "Reconsidering Religion and Fandom: Christian Fan Works in My Little Pony Fandom," Culture and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Journal 15, no. 4 (2014), 399- 418.
  34. Sean McCloud, "Popular Culture Fandoms, the Boundaries of Religious Studies, and the Project of the Self," Culture and Religion 4, no. 2 (2003), 188.
  35. See James T. Richardson, "Definitions of Cult: From Sociological-Technical to Popular- Negative." Review of Religious Research 34, no. 4 (1993), 348-356.
  36. Henry Jenkins, Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture (New York: Routledge, 2005), 12, 13.
  37. Jenkins, Textual Poachers, 17.
  38. Mark Duffett, "False Faith or False Comparison? A Critique of the Religious Interpretation of Elvis Fan Culture," Popular Music and Society 26, no. 4 (2003), 520.
  39. J. Otter Bickerdike, The Secular Religion of Fandom (London: Sage, 2016), 8-15.
  40. Cornel Sandvoss, Fans: The Mirror of Consumption (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005), 63.
  41. Catherine Bell, "Paradigms Behind (and Before) the Modern Concept of Religion," History and Theory 45, no. 4. (2006), 29.
  42. Mark MacWilliams, Joanne Punzo Waghorne, Deborah Sommer, Cybelle Shattuck, Kay A. Read, Selva J. Raj, Khaled Keshk, Deborah Halter, James Egge, Robert M. Baum, Carol S. Anderson and Russell T. McCutcheon, "Religion/s Between Covers: Dilemmas of the World Religions Textbook," Religion Studies Review 31, nos 1-2 (2005), 1-35.
  43. Jonathan Z. Smith, "Religion, Religions, Religious," in Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed. Mark C. Taylor, 269-284 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 276.
  44. Mark MacWilliams, Joanne Punzo Waghorne, Deborah Sommer, Cybelle Shattuck, Kay A. Read, Selva J. Raj, Khaled Keshk, Deborah Halter, James Egge, Robert M. Baum, Carol S. Anderson and Russell T. McCutcheon, "Religion/s Between Covers: Dilemmas of the World Religions Textbook," Religion Studies Review 31, nos 1-2 (2005), 1-35.
  45. Emily McAvan, The Postmodern Sacred: Popular Culture Spirituality in the Science Fiction, Fantasy and Urban Fantasy Genres (Jefferson: McFarland, 2012), 19.
  46. Gary Laderman, Sacred Matters: Celebrity Worship, Sexual Ecstasies, the Living Dead, and Other Signs of Religious Life in the United States (New York: New Press, 2009), viii-ix.
  47. Gary Laderman, "Sacred & Profane: From Bono To The Jedi Police-Who Needs God?" Religion Dispatches, June 22, 2009. http://religiondispatches.org/isacredi-from-bono-to-the- jedi-police-who-needs-god/.
  48. Laderman, "Sacred & Profane."
  49. Jennifer Porter, "Implicit Religion in Popular Culture: The Religious Dimensions of Fan Communities," Implicit Religion 12, no. 3 (November 2009), 275.
  50. Cusack, Invented Religions, 24.
  51. Markus Altena Davidsen, "The Elven Path and the Silver Ship of the Valar: Two Spiritual Groups Based on J. R. R. Tolkien's Legendarium," in Fiction, Invention, and Hyper-Reality, ed. Carole M. Cusack and Pavol Kosnáč (London and New York: Routledge, 2017), 15-30;
  52. see also Gwineth, "Appendix 1.2 Ilsaluntë Valion," in Fiction, Invention, and Hyper-Reality, 34-36.
  53. Cusack, Invented Religion, 53-82.
  54. Venetia Laura Delano Robertson, "Salvation and Animation: Religion, Fandom and Identityin the Romantic Narratives of Mystics and Soulbonders," in Fiction, Invention, and Hyper-Reality, 58-78; Samuel Veissière, "Varieties of Tulpa Experiences: Sentient Imaginary Friends, Embodied Joint Attention, and Hypnotic Sociality in a Wired World," Somatosphere, April 3 (2015), http://somatosphere.net/2015/04/varieties-of-tulpa-experiences-sentient- imaginary-friends-embodied-joint-attention-and-hypnotic-sociality-in-a-wired-world.html;
  55. Danielle Kirby, Fantasy and Belief: Alternative Religions, Popular Narratives, and Digital Cultures (Durham, UK: Acumen, 2013).
  56. Michael Jindra, "Star Trek Fandom as a Religious Phenomenon," Sociology of Religion 55, no. 1 (1994), 27-51; see also Jindra, '"Star Trek to Me is a Way of Life": Fan Expressions of Star Trek Philosophy'. In Star Trek and Sacred Ground: Explorations of Star Trek, Religion, and American Culture, ed. Jennifer E. Porter and Darcee L. McLaren, 217-230 (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1999).
  57. Daniel Cavicchi, Tramps Like Us: Music and Meaning Among Springsteen Fans. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
  58. Matt Hills, "Media Fandom, Neoreligiosity, and Cult(ural) Studies," The Velvet Light Trap 46 (2000), 73-84.
  59. Hills, "Media Fandom, Neoreligiosity, and Cult(ural) Studies," 74
  60. Anne Jerslev, "Sacred Viewing: Emotional Responses to The Lord of the Rings," in The Lord of the Rings Popular Culture in Global Context, ed. Ernest Mathjis (London: Wallflower Press, 2006), 206-221.
  61. Laderman, Sacred Matters, ix