Mind, Body, and Emotion in the Reception and Creation Practices of Fan Communities

"Hautsch's book is a game-changer: her central idea of "critical closeness" ("a mode of reading and response that is deeply emotional, embodied, and communal") unites many previous strands of fan studies and, in its clear opposition to (male, white) literary-critical ideas of "critical distance," opens up new ways not only to think about fan works but about art in general. Drawing on cognitive psychology and performance studies, Mind, Body, and Emotion in the Reception and Creation Practices of Fan Communities unites two historically different theories of fanworks: one which sees them as a site of emotion and community, and one which sees them as critical responses to media culture. Hautsch undoes these facile oppositions and puts thinking back into the body, connecting fandom's emotional and analytical responses."

-Francesca Coppa, Professor of English and Film Studies, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA, USA

This book argues that fans' creative works form a cognitive system; fanfic, fanvids, and gifs are not simply evidence of thinking, but acts of thinking. Drawing on work in cognitive linguistics, neuroscience, cognitive philosophy, and psychology-particularly focused on 4-E cognition, which rejects Cartesian dualism-this project demonstrates that cognition is an embodied, emotional, and distributed act that emerges from fans' interactions with media texts, technological interfaces, and fan collectives. This mode of textual engagement is deeply physical, emotional, and social and is enacted through fanworks. By developing a theory of critical closeness, this book proposes a methodology for fruitfully putting cognitive science in conversation with fan studies.

Jessica Hautsch is an assistant professor in the Humanities Department at New York Institute of Technology. She earned her PhD from Stony Brook University, where she also taught as a lecturer with the Program in Writing and Rhetoric. Her work offers a phenomenological interrogation of fan communities, exploring how the cognitive humanities, performance studies, and fandom intersect. She is an avid fan of Buffy, Game of Thrones, D&D, and emo.