In the blog, I will be discussing the term détournement and how exactly it applies to cosplay. I will be mentioning the definition of détournement, the origins of it, the death of the author, and how this helps connect the critical theory of détournement and cosplay.
The word détournement in the literal translation means to hijack (Geczy, & Peirson- Smith, 2018) as a literary term it involves the deliberate plagiarism of a text (Geczy, & Peirson- Smith, 2018). The history of détournement involves situations International, a group of revolutionary artists and intellectuals in the 1950s (Geczy, & Peirson- Smith, 2018). Détournement refers to where “authoritative books, maps, and other text were cut and pasted along the polemical and aesthetic line,” (Geczy, & Peirson- Smith, 2018). This hijack was a form of rebellion as it used the playfulness of these pranks to undermine these authoritative social hierarchy’s, political and aesthetic lines (Geczy, & Peirson- Smith, 2018) by reclaiming and expressing things the original work may not have intended. Détournement today is seen as a critical theory as reuse and imitation of the original work.
Cosplay Involves the audience of the original text “dressing up and performing as characters from popular media texts, e.g. comics, animated or live-action films and tv, games, and other popular culture media including music videos.” (Mountfort, 2020) in other words the audience of a certain text is taking the text into their own hands and from that creating new meaning through their design and expression of these characters that differ from the original text meaning the audience then become the author. As Paul Mountfort states “Fanfiction 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, 2020). In doing this there is a sense of rebellion from the audience as they are removing the large authority originally held by the author often described as the death of the author (Mountfort, 2020). It is through this process that the critical theory of détournement finds itself situated in.
By the text becoming a “negotiation between the readers, you guys, us and the texts themselves,” (Mountfort, 2020) the audience is given more control of its expression they form their understanding of the text based on their own experience thus they are from a critical theory standpoint participating in détournement. Cosplay is the three-dimensional version of taking text and physically representing their understanding or interpretation of it (Mountfort, 2020). As such one can look at it as a physical hijacking of the text is an example in the marvel cinematic universe a section of the audience began shipping title character Captain America and his best friend the winter soldier forming the ship Stucky (Tracy 2016), for the couple to occur the fans have taken the text hijacked its canonical work and placed within it their reading that Steve, Captain America, and Bucky, winter soldier, are romantically involved. they then through cosplay take it a step further and allow themselves to embody these characters allowing the roleplay of them being a couple (Tracy, 2016).
In conclusion, détournement involves the reuse and imitation of the original text, hijacking, and placing within its new meaning as the original author’s authority is reduced allowing for a new interpretation of a text. Cosplay in all its forms involves the removal of an author’s original meaning as those who cosplay as these characters add new meaning to said characters through their experiences and understanding of the character which now resides outside of the original text. Therefore détournement is applicable to cosplay as the very act of cosplay is the expression of détournement.
Reference
Geczy, A., Mountfort, P., Peirson- Smith, A. (2018). Planet cosplay. United Kingdom: Bristol, United States: Chicago. Interlect
Mountfort, P (Lec). (2020). [Lecture powerpoint]. Retrieved from
Mountfort, P (Lec). (2020). [Lecture recording]. Retrieved from
Tracy, J (writ). (2016). Chris evans and sebastian stan meet stucky cosplayers at wizard world philadelphia. retrieved from https://www.outerplaces.com/science-fiction/item/12369-chris-evans-and-sebastian-stan-meet-stucky-cosplayers-at-wizard-world-philadelphia
Pop Genres 2020 