Referring to Mountfort et al. (2018), in what ways is cosplay analogous to citation?

Cosplay is analogous to citation in two key ways. The first being the obvious, in that it makes reference to a specific text. This is argued in the 2018 book, Planet Cosplay, by Mountfort, P, who writes that, when looking at the act of cosplay from the perspective of it being a referential form, ‘cosplay can be regarded as a form of citation, with cosplayers collectively involved in performing myriad ‘citational acts.’ (Mountfort, 2018)

While cosplay takes many forms and can be executed at various levels of professional to casual, generally, cosplayers make an effort to appear as a very specific character from a specific text, or portion within a larger text (for example, a lengthy, on-going series such as comic books or manga), rather than simply bearing a resemblance to the character in general; the difference between merely having green hair, and wearing make-up, a purple suit and wide-brimmed hat, and slicked back green hair to cosplay as Jack Nicholson’s Joker from Batman (1989, dir. Tim Burton).  As put in Planet Cosplay (2018), ‘The thousands of costumes and accoutrements, such as weapons and other props, are, on one level, like trees in a forest of citation that link the cosplay back to the source text’. (Mountfort, 2018)

Alongside the costumes and props, there is also the behaviour and actions of the cosplayers. Many stay ‘in character’ as their chosen character while in cosplay dress; doing various actions, skits, or even playing out certain notable scenes with other cosplayers. This constitutes the ‘act’ portion of Mountfort, P.’s naming of cosplay as a ‘citational act’. (Mountfort, 2018) These ‘acts’, just as with the costuming, are specific to the chosen character, whether it be in direct quotation of dialogue or mimicking speech mannerisms, body language and character-specific tics.

This specificity goes even further in the case of cosplay; to continue the Joker analogy, there is a marked difference between a person cosplaying as Jack Nicholson’s 1989 Joker, and another person cosplaying as Heath Ledger’s 2008 Joker, despite the two being the same character. This is because the cosplayers are specifically referencing the text in which these characters exist, and not just the character themselves – Burton’s 1989 film and Nolan’s 2008 film, respectively. This is pointed out within Planet Cosplay’s section on cosplay as citation, ‘After all, where cosplay differs from dressing up more generally—including fashion subcultures that are sometimes part of the milieu but not strictly cosplay, such as steampunk and Lolita—is in its specific indebtedness to source media on which it is heavily reliant.’ (Mountfort, 2018)

The second key way in which cosplay is a citational act is in how it makes (often new) meaning out of text by making reference to it within a new context. The majority of cosplay takes place at fan meetings, which are most often in the form of conventions such as San Diego’s Comic-Con or New Zealand’s Armageddon Expo. At such meet-ups, there are often many other cosplayers embodying different characters from a range of texts. This can lead to interactions between characters, originally from wildly different franchises and ‘worlds’, who would have otherwise never met; not unlike the fanfiction trend of ‘crossovers’ between texts. These can also occur between characters from the same worlds/texts; the difference between these interactions and the aforementioned skits, etc. is that these interactions are wholly new and improvised by the cosplayers themselves. They are the product of the cosplayers embodying their characters completely (truly ‘playing’ as them) and creating new meaning in the form of their interactions as the characters with others that they encounter within the new context (in this case, conventions). Examples of this can be seen in popular online videos from fan conventions, such as a video of Deadpool and Spiderman (established friends within their shared canonical universe) doing a choreographed dance sequence together. (Star Dragonair, 2018)

It is worth noting that not all instances of this occur within the context of fan conventions, or even with other characters, however. A popular trend within the online ASMR community has been for creators to act out ‘roleplay’ ASMR videos as certain characters. This involves all the aspects of cosplay – in both costuming and acting – and is another instance of fans creating new meaning within the new context of ASMR and an ASMR roleplay, as these are, once again, either improvised or new material written by the cosplayer themselves ‘in character’. An example of this would be ASMR Youtube creator Gibi ASMR’s video in which she cosplays as Linda from Bob’s Burgers. (Gibi ASMR, 2017)

References

Gibi ASMR. (2017, October 27). [ASMR] Eat At Bob’s Burgers! (Linda Roleplay) [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/jS51HkoP2PE

Mountfort, P. (2018). Cosplay as Citation. In P. Mountfort, A. Peirson-Smith, & A. Geczy, Planet Cosplay (pp. 21-24). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Star Dragonair. (2018, May 28). Deadpool and Spiderman Dance at Anime Convention [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/kDe2J16Zqn8