Planet cosplay : costume play, identity and global fandom / Paul Mountfort, Anne Peirson-Smith and Adam Geczy

Includes bibliographical references and index

Part I: Critical practice -- Cosplay as citation -- Cosphotography and fan capital -- Cosplay at armageddon -- Part II: Ethnographies -- Cos/play -- Cosplay sites -- Cos/creation -- Part III: Provocations -- Proto-cosplay -- Cosgender/cosqueer -- Cosporn -- Conclusion: Cosplay futures

Planet Cosplay is the first book to examine cosplay from a set of groundbreaking interdisciplinary approaches, highlighting the latest and emerging discourses around this popular cultural practice. Authored by widely published scholars in the field, it examines the central aspects of cosplay, ranging from sources and sites to performance and play, from sex and gender to production and consumption, Planet Cosplay considers the rise of cosplay as a cultural phenomenon and its role in personal, cultural and global identities. It provides a unique, multifaceted examination of the practice, from theoretical bases including popular cultural studies, performance studies, gender studies and trans-media studies. As the title suggests, the book's purview is global, encompassing some of the main centres of cosplay throughout the United States, Asia, Europe and Australasia. Each of its three parts offers not only a set of entry points into its subject matter, but a narrative of the development of cosplay and scholarly approaches to it