2. What does the terms détournement mean and how is it applicable to cosplay?
“Détournement can be defined as a variation on previous work, in which the newly created work has a meaning that is antagonistic or antithetical to the original”(Wikipedia, n.d). The term is also similar to a satirical parody, but rather than creating a new work that strongly implies only the original; it employs direct reuse of the authentic or faithful imitations. On the other side, Mountfort(2018) explains “Détournement literally means ‘to reroute’ or ‘to ‘hijack’ and for the Situationists was linked to the ‘ludic,’ or purposive play.” The term is linked with the Paris-based social revolutionary group of intellectuals and artists of the 1950s, which is still used today in the theory of criticism and includes pranks designed to encompass subversive beyond more mischief and undermine authority, social hierarchy and political views, thereby creating a good resonance with cosplay.
First of all, Detournement is useful in making cosplay a critical practice, not just a form of fandom. While familiarity with the story world of the character that the course player imitates to immerse himself as well as the audience in the fandom is a factor to enter the community, material and social concerns such as the player’s body shape, clothing costs, and their cooperation within the cosplay group may be important to them. According to Mountfort(2018), Cosplayers use parody, pastiche, satire, burlesque, and caricature through citation rather than using the source material. They also creates re-contextualization of sources consistent with other mixing and mashing practices, such as fan fiction and animation music video production, rather than merely dressing up or acting in a particular bypass form of cosplay. “Fan fiction and parodies, cosplay is part of the feedback loop that allows fans to enter into a text and transform it, turning readers into authors and blurring the distinction between fan and critic, as well as reader and text”(Mountfort,2018) The cosplayer gives a three-dimensional presence in the story world by activating the character through the understanding of the narrative and interpreting or reconstructing the character in various ways by becoming the character, not the usual self, in such a detournement.
Cosplay also often overturns gender as a ‘cross-play,’ where cosplayers also express race in a fluid manner. For example, “Tim Curry’s character Dr Frank N. Furter rapidly becoming an iconic instance of drag and establishing an early genetic link between cosplay and the gender-bending practice of crossplay.”(Mountfort,2018)
Like this, Detournement applies in various ways to cosplay. It induces cosplay to be viewed as a form of creative or destructive citations by quoting not only data from sources but also as a critical practice as well as fan-based consumerism by destroying existing media materials in a very special way.
References
Détournement. (2020, July 27). Retrieved September 27, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9tournement
Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet cosplay: Costume play, identity and global fandom. Intellect.
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