Question: In what ways can cosplay be understood in terms of notions such as affect, transportation, transubstantiation and mediated fantasy?
Cosplay is the act of dressing up as a character from a film, book, video-game or other media including original content (OC). Cosplay is derived from the terms costume & to play and is the act of “taking on the habitus of a particular character through costume, accessories, gesture and attitude; it is therefore not simply “dressing up” but rather inhabiting the role of a character both physically and mentally.’”(Mountfort, 2018, p.4). Cosplay and cosplayers are typically seen participating in events such as conventions, or larping (Mountfort, 2018).
Cosplay allows fantasy groups across all different mediums to join together in appreciation of the content and the art of cosplaying itself. Cosplay allows these characters to exist in each other’s worlds and extends the possibilities that weren’t there to begin with. For example, a Harry Potter cosplayer could interact as Harry Potter with not only other Harry Potter themed cosplayers but also with cosplayers from different mediums such as Anime.
It also allows for an element of performance. Of course the act of dressing up and playing a part is a huge part of cosplayers performance. But cosplay performance is different from theatre performance in the sense that cosplayers do not script out an entire scene whereas they will begin a scene maybe beginning in something that has already happened in the story and improvise a short scene from there (Mountfort, 2018).
Cosplay takes a person and changes their mind-set in a sense that they become a character from either a source material or an original material. Cosplaying allows cosplayers to redefine that character that better fits them, such as changing the gender or different style of hair or clothing. A cosplayer can alternate between being in character and their real selves when it suits them and the moment that a cosplayer experiences whilst diving back into character is called transubstantiation. The overwhelmingly powerful desire to not only become this fantasy character, but to bring the character out of its narrative and give it a physical form often brings empowerment and a sense of belonging to the cosplayers (Mountfort, 2018). The idea of transportation is interesting, in terms of cosplay it does not work in just one way. Of course the people who become these characters are transported into an alternate mentality different from their own. But in a way the characters that they portray also get transported into our world.
Cosplay can bring in mediated fantasies where people will write guidelines and strict ways on becoming a character. They can have events related to such things such as competitions around who’s the best Batman or best dressed. Although many people enjoy these mediated fantasy events there are people who dislike it because it takes away some of the creative freedom and expression that they use in their own or others cosplay.
To summaries cosplay is widely used to express interests as well as and bring people together who share the same passions for many different types of mediums.
References
Mountfort, P, Peirson-Smith, A, & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet cosplay: Costume play, identity and global fandom. Intellect Books.
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