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Ownership, authority, and the body: Does antifanfic sentiment reflect posthuman anxiety?

Authors

  • Madeline Ashby

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2008.040

Keywords:

Anime, CLAMP, Cyborg theory, Doujinshi, Fandom, Fan fiction, Ghost in the Shell, Haraway, Manga, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Serial Experiments, Lain, Uncanny

Abstract

This essay examines three Japanese anime texts—Ghost in the Shell, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Serial Experiments: Lain—in order to discover metaphors for female fan practices online. In each of the three texts, women overthrow corporate, governmental, or paternal control over the body and gain the right to copy or reproduce it by fundamentally altering those bodies. These gestures are expressions of posthuman anxiety and "terminal identity." In addition, they involve confrontation with an uncanny double in some way. But how can they provide models for cyborg and fan subjectivity in an era in which bodily and textual reproduction, especially among females, is such a hotly contested issue? And how is the antifanfic backlash related to the phenomenon of the uncanny?

Author Biography

Madeline Ashby

Madeline Ashby is a master's student at York University in Toronto, Canada, where she is pursuing a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and a Graduate Diploma in Asian Studies.

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Published

2008-09-15

Versions

Issue

Vol. 1 (2008)

Section

Praxis

License

TWC Nos. 25 onward are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC by 4.0). For an explanation of the journal's reasoning, see the TWC editorial Copyright and Open Access. TWC Nos. 1 through 24 are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, with TWC, not the author, retaining copyright.

Presses whose policies require written permission for reproduction should contact the TWC Editor; such permission is routinely given for no fee.