Register
Register here for the annual meeting and to begin or renew an ASA membership
Register here to submit a proposal through the ASA's 2012 submission site.
Register here for JHU Press and ASA membership services, including online access to American Quarterly and the Encyclopedia of American Studies Online.Register here to join an ASA community. Only current ASA members may contribute to the community blogs. Registration is not required to submit display or text ads or news and events or to view many pages. We will refuse posts that are not of professional interest to ASA members.
Click here for membership FAQ's
Events
Jun. 30 | 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies due
Jun. 30 | 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies Teaching, Advising, and Program Development due
Oct. 1 | Travel Grants for Graduate Students
For submission guidelines, click here
Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
By University | By Year
Robinson, Michael G. "Genre From the Audience Perspective: Science Fiction," American Cultural Studies, Bowling Green State University, August 2000.
This study investigates genre from the perspective of audiences. Past theories of genre are demonstrated to be problematic, relying upon static taxonomies. From a cultural studies standpoint, genre is an exchange of meaning between producers and receivers of popular culture texts. While there is some understanding of how producers view genre and more understanding of how critics and academics do the same, there have been few studies of how audiences create genre. This study uses an in-depth interview method to develop an understanding of the audience perspective. Science fiction was selected as an ideal case study for the genre. The interview was structured around two exercises. In the first, participants generated annals of their experiences with science fiction. In the second, participants explained how pre-selected texts were examples of science fiction or not. Follow-up questions were asked of the participants in both exercises in order to learn from their understandings of their experiences and judgments. Analysis was conducted in a qualitative and interpretive mode. The participants’ sense of what science fiction is and is not depends on the presence of certain narrative or aesthetic features in a text. Science fiction is not tied to a particular medium. Science fiction has permeable boundaries, co-existing with related genres like horror or fantasy. Experiences with science fiction are also surprisingly social. Participants enjoy sharing meanings about science fiction with other group members, but they also evaluated their involvement with groups. The lessons learned from the participants’ experiences are transferred back to the concept of genre. Genre is found to be polysemic and above media types. The most definitive statement that may be made about science fiction is that for a certain group in a certain context, a particular definition holds. This encourages investigation of genre as a social experience.
Quick Links
American Quarterly [official journal site]
American Quarterly [editorial site]
Encyclopedia of American Studies
Encyclopedia of American Studies [editorial site]