Emily Coccia publishes article in Mid Theory Collective’s Adaptation Anxiety series
Coccia is Robert A. Oden Jr. Postdoctoral Fellow for Innovation in the Liberal Arts and English at Carleton.
Emily Coccia, Robert A. Oden Jr. Postdoctoral Fellow for Innovation in the Liberal Arts and English, published an article on fans, their scrutinized reading practices, and cultural paranoia — titled, “Who’s Afraid of AO3?” — as part of the Mid Theory Collective’s Adaptation Anxiety series.
A specter is haunting modern media—the specter of the fangirl who’s managed to make a career, a name, and a sizeable profit for herself off of her fanfiction.
This winter, critics—of both the professional and armchair variety—have taken to the Internet in droves to ferret out traces of fannishness in prestige film adaptations and literary reworkings by young women of color and to fret over the desires of the “horny girls” purportedly driving the meteoric success of Heated Rivalry. From the sexist and racist critiques of Chloe Zhao’s Oscar-winning film Hamnet as glorified fanfic to sensationalized explainers of Heated Rivalry’s runaway success and the lusty fangirls propelling it, fandom looms large as the locus of critical anxiety.