Category: Week 8 Questions – Cosplay

What does the terms détournement mean and how is it applicable to cosplay?

Détournement in French means ‘rerouting’ or ‘hijacking’ but can be defined as a variation on a previous work that in some way contradicts or critiques the meaning of the original work. When someone dons their cosplay of their chosen character, they are, without the consent of whoever or whatever owns the original material, given the power to represent that character in any way they desire towards an audience, usually people at conventions. Through this cosplayers can ‘hijack’ the character’s presentation for a number of different results.

The most common and obvious application of Détournement in cosplay is for comedic purposes, when a cosplayer hijacks the representation of a fictional character, and are surrounded by conventiongoers and cosplayers that have an inside understanding of that fictional character, it creates a rare opportunity for humour. Due to popularity and the simplicity of design, the most common cosplays at your average convention are going to be Spiderman and Deadpool. In the in text-cannon, the two characters share a comical dynamic of the funny guy and the straitman, but in the context of cosplay the non-cannon dynamic which is created by cosplayers can be changed in the way in which both characters are in on the chaos, as well other forms of the relationship in a way that extends that comedic dynamic past the limitations of the in text-cannon.     

The next application of Détournement in cosplay is as a means to critique. The manner in which a cosplayer can accurately represent the character they are hijacking are based around their own limitations. Cosplayers have differences in height, weight, physique, and gender that can potentially limit their ability to replicate their chosen character (Mountfort, 2018). This is an inadvertent critique on the often unrealistic appearances that many fictional characters present. 

The final application of Détournement is one that is limited mostly to video game cosplay. In a huge majority of existing video games there exists an unspoken conflict between the canonical game and player cannon. What I mean by this is the canonical way in which a character would interact with their world, versus how a player uses that same character to interact with the world in a non-canonical way. Michael De Santa from Grand Theft Auto 5’s main goal is to retire peacefully, yet the player is enabled through mechanics to make Michael go on an unwarranted destructive rampage. The conflict between game-cannon and player-cannon, is an issue that many games, especially one that attempt to be immersive and story driven suffer from, but in the non-cannon world of cosplay, the tides turn completely. Now that the player has hijacked the character and brought that character to a new world through cosplay, player-cannon is now free to take over. 

Mountfort, P, Peirson-Smith, A, & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet cosplay: Costume play, identity and global fandom. Intellect Books. 

Q2. What does the terms détournement mean and how is it applicable to cosplay?

Cosplay is a term derived from costume and play. It is a way for fans of popular genres to dress as their favourite characters from TV, Films, Comics, Anime, and computer games. According to Mountfort et al. (2018) cosplayers may be enthusiastically found at places where these genres are celebrated such as fan conventions. There are differing levels of commitment to those who engage in Cosplay. Some people will happily throw on a cheap costume bought from a store, while other more serious cosplayers will spend a great deal of time and money perfecting their costumes. These more serious cosplayers will often take on the persona of the character they portray within the convention circuit. As such cosplay isn’t just about ‘dressing up’, it’s about inhabiting and participating in the world the character performs in. For theses cosplayers they are both the audience and the performer when amongst other cosplayers.

Furthermore there are those in the cosplay realm that take their performance more seriously. They use cosplay as more than fandom and enhance it to encompass critical practice.

“A term that is useful in unpacking cosplay from this perspective is détournement. Associated with the Paris-based social revolutionary group of intellectuals and artists of the 1950s known as the Situationist International, it remains in use in critical theory today and resonates well with cosplay. Détournement literally means ‘to reroute’ or ‘to hijack’.” Mountfort et al. (2018)

Mountfort et al. (2018) explains Situationist détournement cosplayers go above and beyond to replicate and to create their own fandom around their cosplay. They may use a mash up of characters or genres in a form of ‘recontextualization’. They rise above regular cosplay going creating playfulness, subversion, pranks, to intentionally test the political, aesthetics as well as social hierarchy and authority in a story world.

For people who engage in cosplay they are not simply role playing. They are simultaneously using détournement by gathering materials of various types, putting them together to recreate new identities for themselves for the performance and attendance at conventions. It is a serious and expensive form of creative exploration for people to discover their own inner selves through the process of costume and roleplay.

References:

Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet Cosplay. Intellect Books. Intro and Chapter 1

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

If I’m understanding this correctly, Mountford has chosen the word citation because when cosplaying one has to be costuming as a certain character thus citing a certain form of media.

References:

Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet Cosplay: Costume Play, Identity and Global Fandom. Intellect Books.

2. What does the terms détournement mean and how is it applicable to cosplay?

Détournement is a french word meaning; rerouting or hijacking, and in the context of cosplay it can mean reappropriating other culture and even text, into a costume. Cosplay, as we know it today, originated in Japan, and is a short form for the words “Costume play”. Cosplay in its early days was mostly restricted to when cosplayers would dress up and act as Anime and Manga characters, but today there can be cosplay of literally anything, even inanimate objects like phones or shoes. The art of taking a character and reappropriating its costume is a the core of cosplay, as most times costumes of the game and comic-book characters aren’t licenced with their companies, and instead, the costumes are made by the cosplayer, who will play the character, with no official support from their parent companies.

Cosplay is referred to as a citational act (Mountfort, 2018), where normal people who are fans of the anime, wish to show their appreciation for it through their time and effort by making and wearing a costume of characters in the series. Anime and manga are heavily dependant on fan support and outreach, and if a series doesn’t meet certain criteria, it could mean the show or manga won’t continue with sequels, so in Japan, it is very common for Otaku’s to buy figurines collectables, and merchandise,  in order to show their dedication and appreciation for the authors work, and to have a physical, tangible representation of their fandom. Cosplay is very similar to this practise, as cosplayers spend both their time and money into sourcing materials, designing and creating props for their costume, to show their support for the content they are fans of. 

In my opinion, Cosplay has dramatically evolved from its origins, with the advent of sites like; Patreon and OnlyFans, where cosplayers now have their own dedicated fanbase willing to pay various sums of money in order to see their favourite cosplayer donning their favourite anime character. The process of cosplay has gone from a casual pst time for many to a fulltime job, where greater amounts of time and money are spent to create a higher quality cosplay than they were capable of doing before, as now, their fanbase is paying for it, which gives them a monetary incentive. Even now that cosplayers are getting paid for their craft, I believe the concept of “Détournement” is still in effect, as they still have to have an appreciation of the anime for them to spend hours on a costume build. 

To conclude, Cosplay has evolved over the years, from dressing up as your favourite character to go to a convention, to a legitimate business practice with a dedicated fanbase in and of itself. However, the practice of cosplay still requires knowledge of how to make costumes and make props, and also know how the character behaves and their speech patterns, because cosplay, requires the cosplayer to become a character. This justifies the use of characters without the need for permission, as they aren’t making a fake bootleg version of the character, they are expressing their appreciation of them.

References 

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

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.  

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

Cosplay is a play on the words, Costume and Role play. Where people will dress up and role play as their favorite characters or ideas from different fandoms and genres (Mckay, 2019).

Cosplay is an act where people take characters and ideas and form them into a costume that they can transform themselves into that character or idea. Yet it isn’t just a costume. Cosplay also boils down to understanding the character and/or idea so completely that you adopt the idea and mannerism that the character may have, how they behave, talk and walk and how they would be distinguished to others.

Cosplay becomes a performance art (McIssac, 2012), when people adopt how the character would act in real life. Believed to have originated from Japan when students would dress up as characters from their favorite anime’s and manga’s, the trend spread and now there are conventions where people go to show off and embrace the cosplay and the characters they have become, places like Armageddon also allow people to learn and create and come up with new ideas on how they will incorporate characters into their costumes and vice versa.

One of the ways that makes cosplay analogous is that the idea for most characters comes from somewhere, whether it is a book, film, show, anime, videogame or other game the ideas for cosplay are usually already fabricated by a fandom that already exists, the people who cosplay as characters usually only put their own spin on the design while researching ways that the charatcers acts because that character or idea has already been formed before. Mountfort (2018), says that ‘It can be regarded as a form of citation’ when addressing cosplay due to the fact that people take the idea from somewhere that has already composed the character. It can also be regarded as a citation as although characters has already been made and have stories regarding them, ‘cosplayers’ can take the ideas presented from the characters and put their own spin on them making each cosplay not an identical copy and using this to new meaning to characters and broadening how the characters themselves can be perceived.

Cosplay is the costume version of writing a fanfiction dedicated to a fandom, only instead of writing, you are wearing your depiction of a character or idea to transform into that character as they have been created. With the idea of this and the pervious points I believe cosplay is analogous to citation.

References:

McIssac, M. (2012). What is cosplay and why do people do it? Retrieved From https://ifanboy.com/articles/what-is-cosplay-and-why-do-people-do-it/

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 Mckay, R. (2019). Cosplay101: Everything you need to know about it. Who.com. Retrieved From https://www.who.com.au/what-is-cosplay

Cosplay is made up from the two words ‘costume’ and ‘role play’ or ‘costume’ and ‘play’ (Crawford & Hancock, 2018). Cosplay is defined as the practice of dressing up as a character from a book, film or video game. (Oxford dictionary). A citation on the other hand is the a means through which readers understand that the material in your work is derived from another source. Cosplay is analogous to the citation as it references materials from other texts, by editing the original source to produce an image or identity of one’s own. 

Cosplay is a source of citation for fans who use this medium to dress up or transform their bodies into characters from a variety of media texts (Mountfort et al., 2018). A cosplayers body is metaphorically a text that references or cites another text, this is shown in their dress and even behavior (Mountfort et al., 2018).  The cosplayer is required to put a lot of effort into researching their chosen text and character, they would like to dress up as. Only then can their cosplay, and performance be successful; through the perfect reference. (Mountfort et al., 2018). It is not limited to the perfect costume but rather the portrayal of the essence of the true character that is being imitated, this includes pose and gesture. For the audience, it is crucial that cosplayers make strong references back to the characters  so that the audience are immediately able to identify who they are imitating.  Unlike other forms of costumes for different purposes, cosplay is heavily reliant on its source material order to be able to portray the correct image, therefore comparable to citation. (Mountfort et al., 2018).

Additionally, some cosplayers even choose to use mannerisms from that of the character or pretend that they are present within a specific setting from the text that they are citing. This is beneficial to the audience as they now have a much stronger sense of how much research and thought was put into the costume. As well as the fact that they are able to cite materials, while expressing themselves as freely as they would like to be. Moreover, cosplayers are not limited to character adaptations but can also source “parody, pastiche, satire, burlesque, and caricature.” (Mountfort et al., 2018). They have the full freedom to cite multiple materials from a single source in order to enhance the character, or perhaps incorporate the different versions of the character into one, and portray it to the audience. Multimodal texts can also be cited in order to represent a character. Their opportunities to cosplay are limitless, and there is not a set structure or boundaries to follow other than sourcing correctly. For the above reasons, cosplay is analogous to citations.

References

Crawford, G., & Hancock, D. (2018). Urban poachers: Cosplay, playful cultures and the appropriation of urban space. The Journal of Fandom Studies, 6(3), 301-318. https://doi-org.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/10.1386/jfs.6.3.301_1 

Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet cosplay: Costume play, identity and global fandom. Intellect. Lamerichs, N. (2011). Stranger than fiction: Fan identity in cosplay. Transformative Works and Cultures, 7(3), 56-72.

2. What does the terms détournement mean and how is it applicable to cosplay?

Détournement as a practice refers to taking a text and “reappropriating” it via “creative disruption”, subverting the core messaging of the text or revealing its underlying ideology in a critical manner. This practice first emerged during the Situationalist movement, which used the technique to criticise many capitalist texts by reshuffling them and injecting a Marxist reading (Malitz, n.d.). In the context of cosplay, the exploration of Détournement is less politically charged, but still is an important tool in understanding Cosplay’s role as a “citational act” (Mountfort, 2018). Many early conceptions of cosplay’s relationship with the source material from which the costumes/performances are derived is one of mere ‘borrowing’ or theft where the performer temporarily references the source text in celebration of it. More recent theoretical approaches to Cosplay are less one-sided, suggesting a more complex exchange between text and performance. While these frameworks still acknowledge that this relationship is citational and intertextual in nature – requiring the replication of elements from the source material, they also argue that by performing characters from these texts in new dimensions and contexts can act as a type of Détournement, where creative intent is subverted and new understandings of the original text are constructed. These arguments suggest that cosplay is not merely replication, but also a non-canonical addition to the cited text, operating in a very similar way to fanfiction by recontextualizing and expanding upon the franchise’s identity. Discussed by Mountfort (2018) are a few notable ways in which this subversion and contribution can occur. Frequently within cosplay, concessions must be made in the performance of a text due to the physical limitations of a performer, resulting in character depictions which may vary in gender, body shape and race. These recontextualizations, while referential, provide new means to understand the performed character while potentially criticising the source material’s limited depiction of race, body or gender. This highlights the existence of intentionally satirical or critical performances which also occur in cosplay, where elements of characters are stylistically altered to a point where they are still recognisable but communicate a disparate message, one which often subverts the audience’s initial comprehension of source material. Even in instances where the performer intends to faithfully replicate all elements of the original text, the fundamentally limited act of translation between image/text and bodily performance means the performer will be forced to extract the character from its initial position in setting and narrative and position it within a new one, providing a potentially unintended reinterpretation and expansion of text. While such a performance can never capture the narrative of a source material as a whole (Gn, 2011), via this extraction and positioning within the performer’s life, Mountfort (2018) points out that the character becomes involved within a new narrative, again underlining how cosplay shares qualities of Détournement with fanfiction. While these new narratives are not directly connected to the cannon of the text a cosplay cites, a character’s inherent ability to allude to the narrative which they traditionally exist within means that these additional narratives act to construct new understandings the same way a fanfiction might. Especially in late capitalism where characters often exist within transmedia franchises and cannot be tied to one singular canon identity, cosplay and other forms of fan interactions provide significant agency to the audience in regards to defining the brands of characters and their franchises going forward. By presenting Détournement in association with postmodern theories of audience consumption, Mountfort (2018) explores cosplay not only as a means to honour a text, but as a means for a community to fundamentally shape the media they consume.

Mountfort, P. (2018). Cosplay as Citation. In P. Mountfort, A. Peirson-Smith, & A. Geczy, Planet Cosplay (pp. 21-38). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Malitz, Z. (n.d.). Détournement/Culture jamming. Beautiful Trouble. https://beautifultrouble.org/tactic/detournementculture-jamming/

Gn, J. (2011). Queer simulation: The practice, performance and pleasure of cosplay. Continuum, 25(2), 583-593. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2011.582937

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