DEFIANT DEVIANT IMAGES: SCANNING A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE FANART

Abstract

Fan studies is the scholarly analysis of fans and fandom. The engagement of individuals or groups with a particular text or cultural phenomenon with which they have formed an emotional attachment becomes the focus of study. The object of fandom can be any work of literature, film, music, or other media; an activity such as a sport; or even a famous person. Fans move from being mere consumers of the culture industry to becoming producers in their turn or “prosumers”. They produce stories and songs and art centred around their fan object, which are circulated and critiqued by other fans in the safe space of digital fandoms. In this process fans also become performers. Fan art can be anything from portraits of characters to depiction of meaningful moments in the source text or images of wish fulfilment. A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of five fantasy novels by George R.R. Martin published from 1996 to 2011, which has become a cultural phenomenon and has spawned several fandom sites online. This paper examines the fanart produced by A Song of Ice and Fire fans, which are circulated in tumblr.com, deviantart.com and reddit.com to understand the subversive messages they convey.