"I'm Buffy, and you're history": Putting fan studies into history

Authors

  • Nancy Reagin Pace University
  • Anne Rubenstein York University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2011.0272

Keywords:

Fan history, Female fan, Tarzan, Karl May, Science fiction, Wiki, Zine, Sherlockian, Fan letter, Music fan, Sports fan, Cultural exchange, Cross-ethnic identification, Cold War, Lord of the Rings, Tolkien, Copyright, Walter Benjamin

Abstract

This essay kicks off the special historical issue of Transformative Works and Cultures by offering an overview of the ways in which fan communities have been studied by academic historians, and how fan studies has written the history of fan communities. The essay discusses historical work done by amateur fan historians throughout the 20th century; what academic historians can offer fan communities; why academic historians could benefit from studying fandoms as part of the history of popular culture; and what fan studies as a discipline might gain from a broader historical analysis of fandoms.

Author Biographies

Nancy Reagin, Pace University

Nancy Reagin is a Professor of History and Women's & Gender Studies (joint appointment) at Pace University in New York, where she is the chair of the Department of Women's & Gender Studies.

Anne Rubenstein, York University

Anne Rubenstein is an Associate Professor of History at York University, in Toronto.

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Published

2011-03-15

Issue

Vol. 6 (2011)

Section

Editorial

License

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