Cosplay as vernacular adaptation: the argument for adaptation scholarship in media and cultural studies

ABSTRACT

From inventive memes to fan films, contemporary popular culture continues long-standing traditions of adapting existing content to new formats. Despite the centrality of adaptation to popular culture, adaptation studies methods are rarely applied by researchers working in this area.

Cosplay, in which enthusiasts dress as characters from popular culture at fan gatherings, is an increasingly visible part of contemporary culture. Through its reliance on a recognized source text, cosplay is a form of vernacular adaptation. By drawing on narrative interviews with cosplayers, this article illustrates how applying key adaptation studies approaches to cosplay can provide a fresh perspective on the fan phenomena.

Vernacular adaptation like cosplay is not an esoteric practice. From fan fiction to movie-inspired protest signs, adaptation is a fundamental framework of popular culture. Yet, all too often, the tools and approaches of adaptation studies are ignored by media and cultural studies scholars. Focusing on cosplay as a form of vernacular adaptation, this article will demonstrate that adaptation studies is a valuable, yet overlooked, tool in the study of popular culture.

KEYWORDS:

• Adaptation
• popular culture
• cosplay
• vernacular creativity
• fans

Acknowledgments

This research was conducted as part of the Australian Research Council Linkage Project Superheroes & Me. The author would like to thank the very supportive staff at Supanova, Oz Comic-Con, and AMC Expo for facilitating this audience research. Thank you to my colleague Dr. Jessica Balanzategui for her important feedback, as well as the many cosplayers who generously gave their time and shared their opinions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Colin MacCabe opened the 2011 collection, True to the Spirit: Film Adaptation and the Question of Fidelity, by arguing that if adaptation studies scholars choose to ignore ‘the grammar of value […] those colloquial forms that are used to discuss books and films’, it is sealing itself ‘hermetically off from the general culture’ (9).

2. The fan interviews quoted in this article were carried out by the author at Melbourne comic book conventions Supanova, Oz Comic-Con, and AMC in 2016 as part of a larger Australian Research Council-funded project Superheroes & Me. Unless otherwise indicated, all quoted interviews are from this research. These semi-structured interviews adhered to the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research and received ethics approval from Swinburne University of Technology (SHR Project/2016/039). Participants received a consent information statement that outlined the goals and scope of the project as well as the researcher’s background. Participants signed consent forms that allowed their interview responses and images to be used in research outcomes including journal articles.

3. In a welcome acknowledgement of cosplay as adaptation, Kyle Meikle includes a section on cosplay in his book Adaptations in the Franchise Era. However, the section is not a sustained analysis of the fan phenomena, but rather examines cosplay as ‘only one part of a much larger live-action adaptational fabric’ (2019, 156) that includes song parodies, POV theme park videos, and Virtual Reality experiences. Apart from this analysis and some cursory mentions elsewhere (O’Flynn 2013, 206), cosplay has been largely ignored by adaptation studies scholars.

4. Adagio Teas offer ‘Fandom Blends’, which are customer created teas based on fan favourite franchises such as Sherlock, Firefly, and Animal Crossing. For example, the eleventh doctor from Doctor Who was adapted into a blend of Assam melody, vanilla coconut, and apple that is described as ‘Edging the line of quirky and dark’ (’Fandom Signature Blends’).

5. Using the ‘bold graphic style’ of comic book creator Jack Kirby, the art collective Black Kirby ‘remixes comic culture in the context of Afrofuturism’ (Fear of a Black Kirby). Thus, while explicitly acknowledging its adaptation of 1960s comics like Fantastic Four, Black Kirby’s art is informed by a wider range of texts and socio-industrial factors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [LP150100394].

Notes on contributors

Liam Burke

Liam Burke is an Associate Professor in the department of Media and Communication at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, where he is the discipline leader of Cinema and Screen Studies. He is also a member of the Centre for Transformative Media Technologies. Liam has published widely on comic books and adaptation. His books include The Comic Book Film Adaptation: Exploring Modern Hollywood’s Leading Genre, Superhero Movies, and the edited collections Fan Phenomena Batman and The Superhero Symbol. Liam is a chief investigator of the Australian Children’s Television Cultures research group, which is funded by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation.