Stand Alone Cosplay

Abstract

Cosplay, the costumed performance of characters sourced from Japanese popular culture, has become an international phenomenon. Today there are Cosplay events held on every permanently inhabited continent, but there has been limited academic research into Cosplay practice and culture on the national level (Brainbridge and Norris 2009, Brainbridge and Norris 2013, Galbraith 2012, King 2013, Langsford 2014, Sagardia 2017) and no prior international comparative studies between Australia and the United States. This volume focuses on a comparative statistical and ethnographic analysis of Cosplayers in the United States of America and Australia between 2014 and 2015 with an interdisciplinary scope. Each chapter addresses a different aspect of Cosplay practice including history, sites of practice, generational hierarchy and cultural capital, psychological motivations, and gendered performance which aim to further complicate understanding of international Cosplay cultures and to establish a new framework for an interdisciplinary approach to performative groups.