Referring to Mountfort et al. (2018), in what ways is cosplay analogous to citation.
The modern phenomenon of cosplay has become extensively cherished and practised by an extensive community around the world. First coming into fruition in the late 1960s, cosplay involves individuals dressing up and acting as beloved characters from popular media texts (Mountfort, 2020). Throughout the early years, cosplay mostly centred around popular science fiction texts, such as Star Trek, Star Wars and Superman. However, as cosplay achieved an international reputation in the 1990s, due to globalisation and the advancement of technology (Napier, 2007, as cited in Rahman et al., 2012), cosplay began to both expand and diversify.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, cosplay had started to gain mass appeal in Japan. Cosplay appeared in Japanese publications such as issues of My Anime in 1983, which coined the term cosplay. With the rise of cosplay in Japan, cosplay would become indebted with Japanese popular culture sources such as manga, anime, gaming, otaku and idol culture. Cosplay quickly developed into an international sensation with cosplayers frequently incorporating or blending eastern and western influences into their costumes. Thus, Mountfort (2020) argues that cosplay “sat at the intersection of American and Japanese popular culture flows”. Mountfort et al. (2018) state that cosplay is a form of citation, in which individuals are referencing a parent text through the act of dressing up, performing and posing as a chosen character. Mountfort et al. (2018) elaborate by stating “it is the cosplayer’s costumed body that becomes the text or site that references another text— that is, the specific source media that the cosplayer chooses to perform” (p. 23). Furthermore, Hale (n.d., as cited in Mountfort, 2020) states that there exists a distinction between different types of cosplay, in which cosplay can either be ‘direct imitation’ or ‘textual transformation’. Direct imitation focuses on maintaining a faithful adaptation, while textual transformation allows cosplayers to adapt and transform the parent text. Textual transformation enables cosplayers to recontextualise the parent text by applying “parody, pastiche, satire, burlesque, and caricature” into their designs (Mountfort et al., 2018, p. 24). Yet, cosplay differs from conventional forms of costume performance in that cosplayers are not attempting to enact an entire script or story, as it would be impossible. Consequently, cosplayers are not bound to the same boundaries of traditional costume performances. Therefore, cosplayers have more freedom in how they adapt or reference the parent text into their designs. Cosplaying often references a specific character from a pre-established text. Thus, when cosplayers create their costume, they base their designs on extensive knowledge and research. Furthermore, cosplay enables participants to reinterpret and recontextualise the parent text through their costume designs (Mountfort, 2018).
In summary, cosplay is analogous to citation in that participants are adapting or referencing a parent text in their costumes. Furthermore, the medium of cosplay allows participants to push the boundaries of fan practices.
References.
Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet cosplay:
Costume play, identity and global fandom. Intellect Books.
Mountfort, P. (2020). Popgenres week 8 cosplay as citation [PowerPoint Slides]. Blackboard. https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/
Rahman, O., Wing-Sun, L., & Cheung, B. H.-m. (2012). “Cosplay”: Imaginative self and performing identity. Fashion Theory, 16(3), 317-341. https://doi.org/10.2752/175174112X13340749707204
Pop Genres 2020 