University of Chester,
Friday, 10th April 2015
Keynote speaker: Dr Cornel Sandvoss,
University of Surrey
In
the mainstream media, postwar popular music fandom has traditionally been
associated with collective displays of emotion. Yet fandom is actually about a
range of things: shared tastes and personal convictions, individual
subjectivity and wider community. Fandom does not exist entirely in private nor
entirely in public, but is characterized a process of continual mediation
between the two. Jürgen Habermas’s concept of the public sphere suggests that
shared spaces of discussion have political consequences, making the crossing of
the private/public boundary a political act. It is possible for fans to have
relatively public experiences in private and private experiences in public. What
new forms of public sphere does popular music fandom create? Edward Comentale
suggested that Elvis Presley created a “public sphere within the public
sphere.” Furthermore, both ‘the public’ and ‘the private’ are transforming in a
networked society and neoliberal era. As communities of imagination, fan bases are
providing new models for public activism based on shared values. Fandom can therefore
help to indicate where conceptions of the private and public might require some
reformulation. We invite papers associated with this subject on specific topics
such as the following:
* Closet popular music fandom
* Fandom and intimacy
* Music fan diaries and confessionals
* Voyeurism and fandom
* Fan mail and its representation
* ‘Masses’ and ‘manias’ - collective fandom in the mass broadcast era
* Fan communities as their own public spheres
* Fandom, festivals and spectacles
* Collecting, exhibiting and curating and music fandom
* Genre fandom and the public sphere
* Fan philanthropy and activism
* Fan productivity as social commentary
* ‘Drive by’ media, news and documentary portrayals
* Interaction on social media
* Fandom, affect and the public display of emotion
* The public/private boundary and historical fan studies
* Abject heroes and music fan shame
Papers
will be 20 minutes in length with 10 minutes for questions.
Please send an
abstract of no more than 300 words and a bio of no more than 50 words to: m.duffett@chester.ac.uk - before Wednesday, 19th November,
2014.
Organized
by:
Dr
Mark Duffett, University of Chester.
Dr
Koos Zwaan, InHolland University of Applied Sciences.
This
event is free to staff and students from any university. Click here to register.
