A Portrait of the Auteur As Fanboy : The Construction of Authorship in Transmedia Franchises

"Increasingly over the past decade, fan credentials on the part of writers, directors, and producers have come to be seen as a guarantee of quality media-making-the "fanboy auteur." Figures like Joss Whedon are both one of "us" and one of "them." This is a strategy of marketing and branding-it is a claim from the auteur himself or industry PR machines that the presence of an auteur who is also a fan means the product is worth consuming. Such claims that fan credentials guarantee quality are often contested, with fans and critics alike rejecting various auteur figures as the true leader of their respective franchises. That split, between assertions of fan and auteur status and acceptance (or not) of that status, is key to unravelling the fan auteur. In A Portrait of the Auteur as Fanboy: The Construction of Authorship in Transmedia Franchises, authors Anastasia Salter and Mel Stanfill examine this phenomenon through a series of case studies featuring fanboys. The volume discusses both popular fanboys, such as J. J. Abrams, Kevin Smith, and Joss Whedon, as well as fangirls like J. K. Rowling, E. L. James, and Patty Jenkins, and dissects how the fanboy-fangirl auteur dichotomy is constructed and defended by popular media and fans in online spaces, and how this discourse has played in maintaining the exclusionary status quo of geek culture. This project is particularly timely given current discourse-including such incidents as the controversy surrounding Joss Whedon's so-called feminism, the publication of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and contestation over authorial voices in the DC cinematic universe, as well as broader conversations about toxic masculinity and sexual harassment in Hollywood-and the importance franchises play in providing aspirational narratives and identity models to generations of fans"-- Provided by publisher Increasingly over the past decade, fan credentials on the part of writers, directors, and producers have come to be seen as a guarantee of quality media making—the "fanboy auteur." Figures like Joss Whedon are both one of "us" and one of "them." This is a strategy of marketing and branding—it is a claim from the auteur himself or industry PR machines that the presence of an auteur who is also a fan means the product is worth consuming. Such claims that fan credentials guarantee quality are often contested, with fans and critics alike rejecting various auteur figures as the true leader of their respective franchises. That split, between assertions of fan and auteur status and acceptance (or not) of that status, is key to unravelling the fan auteur. In A Portrait of the Auteur as Fanboy: The Construction of Authorship in Transmedia Franchises , authors Anastasia Salter and Mel Stanfill examine this phenomenon through a series of case studies featuring fanboys. The volume discusses both popular fanboys, such as J. J. Abrams, Kevin Smith, and Joss Whedon, as well as fangirls like J. K. Rowling, E L James, and Patty Jenkins, and dissects how the fanboy-fangirl auteur dichotomy is constructed and defended by popular media and fans in online spaces, and how this discourse has played in maintaining the exclusionary status quo of geek culture. This book is particularly timely given current discourse, including such incidents as the controversy surrounding Joss Whedon's so-called feminism, the publication of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child , and contestation over authorial voices in the DC cinematic universe, as well as broader conversations about toxic masculinity and sexual harassment in Hollywood. Introduction: Fanboys to the rescue! -- 1. Steven Moffat and fandom's favorite troll -- 2. E.L. James and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad fangirl -- 3. J.K. Rowling and the auteur who lived -- 4. Kevin Smith and the "independent" fanboy -- 5. Joss Whedon and the allegedly feminist fanboy auteur -- 6. Zack Snyder and the professional toxic fanboy -- 7. Patty Jenkins, Ryan Coogler, Taika Waititi, and the fan auteur as l'autre -- Conclusion: Fanboy backlash and the futures of fan auteurs The past decade or so of media promotion has seen a recurring trope of Fanboy to the Rescue-have no fear, it says, this revered franchise is being taken over by a writer, director, or producer who is a 'fanboy.' In this trope-which, following Suzanne Scott, the book discusses in terms of the 'fanboy auteur' - the fan credentials of writers, directors, and producers are presented as a guarantee of quality media-making Examines the phenomenon the ""fanboy auteur"". The volume discusses both popular fanboys, such as J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon, and fangirls like J.K. Rowling and E.L. James, and dissects how the fanboy-fangirl auteur dichotomy is constructed and defended, and how this discourse has played in maintaining the exclusionary status quo of geek culture.