Anyone ever did a study on cosplaying?

By Daddylion. 15/08/12, 09:47 am

Hey so i've been seeing surveys around and people who said they're doing interviews on cosplayers and such... but i have not seen actual studies posted online anywhere. Does anyone have anything academic on cosplaying that they wouldn't mind letting me read? Or maybe know of other studies on it?

By Victorian Couture. 26/08/12, 05:34 pm

hmmmm thats a good question, I wrote a 2500 fashion studies essay on japanese cutlure and subfashions for uni, but that wasn't about "Cosplay"
I did find an awesome book on anime that looked at the theory/ideology/academic of the storys of full metal/ vampire knight etc, I din't get to read heaps cause i had to scim/speed read to get through the acticles to know if they were helpfull to my essay, i really must find it again.
sorry I've forgotten half my refs, If you were interested, I can try and dig up some essays using the massey stuffs

if it's about japanese anime I know of some awesome works on animes
When i did my essay on post-human cyborgs EVERYONE refs Ghost in the shell so i had the edge there, plus i got to read some really interesting works talking about the ins and outs of everything from the first ghost movie to the series to solid state society.
If you think ghost is deep now wait until you read academic essays on it Shocked

Emotional Infectivity Cyborg Affect and the Limits of the Human

and the other month I started but didn't finish (too sleeply) reading A REALLY FRCKING INTERESTING one about gay camp parody culture in Ouran high school Host club, it was awesome,

The Queering of Haruhi Fujioka: Cross-Dressing, Camp and Commoner Culture in Ouran High School Host Club

Sorry i appear to have gotten off-topic
the academic journals of "Mechademia" have the BEST essays on these sorts of topics if anyone wants to look them up nodnod

Mechademia 3: Limits of the Human

Mechademia 1: Emerging Worlds of Anime and Manga Costuming the Imagination: Origins of Anime and Manga Cosplay
Game girl: Re-imagining Japanese gender and gaming via Melbourne female cosplayers
Cosplay Culture: The Development of Interactive and Living Art through Play
Cosplay - Creating or playing identities?: An analysis of the role of cosplay in the minds of its fans (click on "fulltext" next to download to read)

Were you just interested in plain "cosplay" essays? it was a bit hard knowing what to look for, because i would be normally seaching, cosplay/indentiy or cosplay/culture sort of thing, as you get better results.

Hope I've helped ashamed

By Daddylion. 27/08/12, 10:23 pm

That last one sounds perfect actually. Thank you so much :)

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