Animal fans: Toward a multispecies fan studies

Abstract

In an exploration of the potential for (and implications of) animal fans—not human fans of animals but nonhuman animals as fans—situated in ongoing debates about the personhood of nonhuman species, I suggest ways that the animal turn taking place in the humanities and social sciences might affect fan studies. I focus on four characteristics associated with both human fans and nonhuman animals: culture, emotionality, sociality, and capacity for creative play.

Keywords

• Anthropomorphism
• Nonhuman
• Personhood