Breaking the logic of neoliberal victimhood: Vulnerability, interdependence and memory in Captain Marvel (Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, 2019)

The contemporary visibility of women’s accomplishments and popular outcry in the face of injustice and/or violence might suggest that women have achieved their aim of putting long-fought feminist principles in the spotlight and have finally earned equality. However, let us not forget that, in the face of violence, the hegemonic matrix of intelligibility has also historically defined women victims by their ‘injurability’, so, intrinsically vulnerable, thus justifying the need of the system to assist them. It is not surprising, then, that, as a response to vulnerability, empowerment is celebrated. In this context, one would think that a blockbuster, such as Captain Marvel (2019), would reproduce the hegemonic economy of recognition where the subjects of violence are either treated as devoid of agency or offered empowerment through a neoliberal individualizing logic. However, the controversy that the film and its female protagonist raised (for adopting explicit feminist language to challenge patriarchy), along with the outcry of white angry men (symptomatized in male film critics) and the Internet nerd-culture (members of which considered themselves aggrieved by the film), provide a fruitful ground to look into the communicative logic of victimhood. Captain Marvel can help us to explore not only the chiaroscuros and phallacy of the victim versus empowered subject script but also the implicit logic that obscures the divisions that this logic perpetuates. In this respect, we are interested in analyzing how the movie stages: 1. The assignation and construction of female vulnerability in a hegemonic shared cultural narrative that privileges the construction of the empowered subject obscuring the politics of emotions; 2. The possibilities of empowerment before such a narrative and in relation to reclaiming historical and personal memories; 3. The sharing of the condition of vulnerability across gender and geographical boundaries and its relation with the criminalization of other vulnerable others such as aliens.

A seriedade e o sublime: o guia de uma forasteira para a cultura nerd

Neste ensaio, Annabel Howard discute sua percepção da cultura nerd e como o relacionamento com o seu marido foi um elemento central na transformação dessa percepção. Annabel fala, num tom pessoal mas bem embasado, sobre como cresceu em um ambiente que favorecia o interesse pelas humanidades e a valorização da chamada “alta cultura”. Ao debater sobre as virtudes da seriedade e da diversão, Annabel constrói um ensaio que trança biografia, opinião e uma reflexão teórica sobre criatividade, cultura e sociedade (resumo escrito pelo tradutor). *** Seriuosness and the sublime: an outsider’s guide to nerd culture ***In this essay, Annabel Howard discusses her perception of nerd culture and how her relationship with her husband played a central role in changing that perception. In a personal yet grounded tone, Annabel talks about growing up in an environment which encouraged an interest in the humanities and “high art”. By debating the virtues of seriousness and fun, she presents an essay that braids biography, opinion and a theoretical reflection on criativity, culture and society (abstract written by the translator).Keywords: creative writing; translation; essay; nerd culture.

A pragmatics of things: Materiality and constraint in fan practices

Although, as qualitative consumer research and material culture studies have demonstrated, objects can be rich sources of meaning and stability, they also entail basic limitations on human action. Interviews conducted as part of a study of one city's nerd-culture scene permitted analysis of the constraints that materiality imposes on fan activity. Fans must have access to certain physical objects in order to realize their practices, and collecting, storing, and purging these objects in domestic spaces constitutes a pragmatics that sets limits and exerts pressures on participants.

Repackaging Popular Culture: Commentary and Critique in Community

Contemporaneous with the collision of Science Fiction/Fantasy with the mainstream evident in the success of nerd culture show The Big Bang Theory (2007- ), Joss Whedon’s The Avengers (2012), the growth of Comic Con audiences and so on, Dan Harmon developed Community (2009- ), a sitcom depicting a study group at a second-rate community college. The show exemplifies a recent gravitation away from the multi-camera, laugh-track driven sitcom formula, alternating between “straight” episodes dealing with traditional sitcom premises, though always inflected with self-aware acumen, and more ambitious, unconventional episodes featuring outlandish premises, often infused with the trappings of genre and geek fandom. The show presents apocalyptic action- and Western-style paintball wars, epidemics that evoke zombie cinema, a Yahtzee game that spirals into alternate timelines, and a high-stakes Dungeons and Dragons game that blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy. Both the straight and the unconventional episodes ultimately serve the same purpose, examining the intersection between nerd culture and everyday life. This essay discusses a number of episodes which exemplify Community’s intersections between everyday life and popular culture, charting the show’s evolving preoccupation with pop culture and intertwining of reality and fantasy. It discusses Community’s self-referentiality as a sitcom, its ambitious and elaborate recreations of and homages to pop culture artefacts, and its explicit gravitation towards Science Fiction and Telefantasy in its third season. Through its various homages to popular culture and ongoing depiction of fan culture, we posit that the show is both a work of fandom and a work about fandom, advocating for the pivotal role of fandom in everyday life and for popular culture as a tool for interpreting, comprehending and navigating life. In this respect, the show contributes to the long history of both the sitcom and Telefantasy as vehicles for cultural commentary.