Imperial and critical cosmopolitans: screening the multicultural city on Sherlock and Elementary

This article argues that two modern reinterpretations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, that is the BBC’s Sherlock (2010–) and CBS’s Elementary (2012–), differ in their representations of the city in ways that bear significant political ramifications. In particular, Sherlock repeats many of the social structures of Conan Doyle’s stories that construct an imperial cosmopolitan vision of life in London, while Elementary offers an interpretation of Holmes’s life in modern New York with a critical cosmopolitan ethos. Building on the works of Craig Calhoun, Ann Stoler, Paul Gilroy, and Walter Mignolo, this article argues that imperial cosmopolitanism refers to a colonial node wherein the global circulation of goods and people leads to increases in segregation, social differentiation, and ethnocentrism, whereas critical cosmopolitanism refers to circumstances under which the arrangement of the global city creates increased contact between various kinds of people as well as decreased social differentiation, which may lead to mutual understanding, solidarity, and what Lauren Berlant calls political empathy. This article demonstrates these two divergent approaches by analysing the programmes’ aesthetic choices, depictions of social contact between Holmes and the diverse inhabitants of the city, and the representations of women, particularly with regard to the casting of Watson. As a result, the article finds that Sherlock depicts London from above as a space that must be strategically traversed to maintain social distance, while Elementary depicts New York from street level as a space wherein Holmes learns to encounter diverse others as co-equal citizens and the audience is invited to experience multiple perspectives. Consequently, Sherlock reiterates an imperial cosmopolitan view of urban globalisation, while Elementary includes key preconditions for the emergence of critical cosmopolitan mentalities

Interactivité, resémantisation, et plaisirs de la primauté ontologique : les œuvres de fans comme centre du récit

Under many circumstances, fan works do not merely add to a central commercial narrative, but instead become the definitive version of « what really happened » for some members of the audience. This article argues that there are at least three factors, authority, medium, and pleasure, that influence the ontological status of fan works, that is, whether fan works flow parallel to or usurp the dominant status of professionally published narrative elements. Fan works thus aid in understanding the cultural, legal, and market forces which encourage the assumption that modern storyworlds must have a corporate center, and enable the theorization of alternate structures and modes of storytelling

"Controversies in digital ethics," edited by Amber Davisson and Paul Booth

Book review of Amber Davisson and Paul Booth. Controversies in Digital Ethics. New York, NY: Bloomsbury, 2016. $130.00 (392p) ISBN 978-1-50131-056-0

"Gaga feminism: Sex, gender, and the end of normal," by J. Jack Halberstam

Review of J. Jack Halberstam. Gaga feminism: Sex, gender, and the end of normal. Boston: Beacon, 2012. Hardcover, $26.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0807010983

Transnationalism, localization, and translation in European fandom: Fan studies as global media and audience studies

Editorial for TWC no. 19, European fans and European fan objects: Localization and translation

“They All Lived Happily Ever After. Obviously.”: Realism and Utopia in Game of Thrones-Based Alternate Universe Fairy Tale Fan Fiction

Fan fiction alternate universe stories (AUs) that combine Game of Thrones characters and settings with fairy tale elements construct a dialogue between realism and wonder. Realism performs a number of functions in various genres, but becomes a particularly tricky concept to tie down in fantasy. Deployments of realism in “quality TV” series like Game of Thrones often reinforce social stigmatization of feminine genres like the romance, melodrama, and fairy tale. The happily-ever-after ending receives significant feminist criticism partly because it falls within a larger framework of utopian politics and poetics, which are frequently accused of essentialism and authoritarianism. However, because fan fiction cultures place all stories in dialogue with numerous other equally plausible versions, the fairy tale happy ending can serve unexpected purposes. By examining several case studies in fairy tale AU fan fiction based on Game of Thrones characters, situations, and settings, this paper demonstrates the genre’s ability to construct surprising critiques of real social and historical situations through strategic deployment of impossible wishes made manifest through the magic of fan creativity