The term cosplay derives from the portmanteau of the words costume and play, and it entails the act of dressing up as popular characters from comic books, movies, television series, video games, etc. Cosplay is a performative act, as those who engage in this activity go beyond just dressing up as their character of choice and also perform as them. It is said that there is a certain indebtedness to Japanese culture, such as manga and anime in terms of popular culture, though cosplay as we know it today sources its influences from both eastern and western culture. It was these cultural exchanges between the United States and Japan which allowed for the foundations of cosplay to be established in the 1970’s and 1980’s. With many more fandoms arising in the 21st century, along with the globalizing current of information due to the age of the internet, the realm of cosplay has expanded and the complexities of this artform have been noted and studied. Specific conventions which were created to cultivate and magnify the qualities of cosplay have shown the true essence of what this fan practice really is. Cosplay can be interpreted as a form of modelling, textualization, translation, and most importantly, citation.
So, how exactly is cosplay analogous to citation? First of all, it is important to understand the metaphorical nature of this concept, as the traditional understanding of the term citation lies in textual referencing. Cosplay as a citation can be interpreted as a physical referencing, through the body of the cosplayer which is the medium, the text which is being cited is the costume and performative being of the body and costume together. Dressing up is an expression of self, as it is connected to showcasing the body in a way which connects to the self in a non physical way. This is something which can be practiced through fashion and personal style, while cosplay transcends beyond that as it is the embodiment of a certain character which isn’t necessarily synonymous to the self. “This embodiment includes not just costume but theatricalism, including pose and gesture. While there may be limitations to analogies between cosplay and citation, investigating the practice, on one level, as a system of reference between texts helps us differentiate it from other forms of dressing up and acting-out.” Mountfort, (2018) (p.:23)
Cosplay has an undeniable postmodern quality to it, as it is connected to the concept of the “death of the author”. The Death of the Author is a 1967 essay by French literary theorist Roland Barthes. This concept refers to the idea that authors no longer have autonomy of their story or characters, and that interpretation and meaning can be assigned by the reader or audience. This is a postmodern understanding of literature, because classical texts allowed the author to posses sovereignty. In the realm of fan practices, meaning and interpretation have a more fluid understanding, as the components of the text can be manipulated according to personal affinity. A good example is the creative freedom associated with fanfiction, as the writer can take certain parts of the story, or characters and create their own story with their own meaning assigned to it. Cosplay acts in a similar way, as it is a citation that can be referenced in a way that suits the cosplayers preferences, imagination and creative autonomy.
References :
Mountfort 2018, Planet Cosplay (Bristol, UK: Intellect Books), Intro and Chapter 1
Mountfort 2018, Planet Cosplay (Bristol, UK: Intellect Books), Chapter 2
Pop Genres 2020 