American queeroes
Coming-out narratives in theCaptain Americafandom
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3852229 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sarah E Beyver, Sarah E Beyvers (0000-0003-3895-7599, Chair of English Literature and Culture, University of Passau, Passau, Germany, corresponding author), Florian Zitzelsberger (0000-0002-7177-5212, Professorship of American Studies/Cultural and Media Studies, University of Passau, Passau, Germany, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 6-22 |
| Publication date | 2020-01-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Comparative American Studies An International Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1477-5700 • E-ISSN: 1741-2676 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14775700.2020.1720405 |
| OpenAlex | W3004968969 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 18 |
This article examines three Captain America fanfictions that imagine the eponymous hero’s cinematic representation as queer in an effort to gauge the impact of a queer Captain America on U.S. society and culture. At the same time, these texts scrutinise the public perception of heroes as agents of heteronormativity, as heterosexual subjects, and objects of a heterosexual gaze, through the incorporation of (social) media responses in their fictional microcosms. Moving beyond the reductive equation of heroic masculinity and heterosexuality, the analysed texts open up more inclusive discourses of desire, disclosure, and dissent by following the coming-out stories of their heroes. The virtual spaces of fandom are put into conversation with the closet, which renders private, and possibly queer, identities invisible, and coming out as an act of publicly (re)gaining agency and self-determinacy. The article offers a queer reading of one of Marvel’s most beloved characters by reassessing the Captain America films and laying bare the constructedness of hetero-heroism that structures and motivates the films’ narratives. American queeroes in fanfiction are thus not just fantasies – they constitute reactions to and efforts against the oppressive framework of heteronormativity which obscures and limits the potential queerness of characters in mass media representations
Aesthetics · Art · Closet · Fandom · Heteronormativity · Lesbian · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Queer · Queer theory · Sociology · Subversion · Digital Games and Media · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · History · Law · Media, Gender, and Advertising
Come as you are
The Dialogic Imagination
Between Men
Closet Space
Critically Queer
Convergence Culture
Convergence Culture
Cyberspaces of Their Own
Homoplot
Gender Trouble
Narrative Theory Unbound
The Search for a Usable Past and other Essays in Historiography
The Myths That Made America
Queer Performativity
Bodies That Matter
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |