Funko Hannibal in Florence: Fan Tourism, Participatory Culture, and Paratextual Play

Abstract

KeywordsFandom participatory culture paratexts paratextual-spatio-play fan pilgrimagePublished by Cardiff University Press https://jomec.cardiffuniversitypress.org/ @JOMECjournal Abstract This article contributes to our emerging understandings of the concept of transmedia tourism by focusing on the importance of physical 'paratextual' (Gray 2010) objects as a key component of this form of tourism, especially for fan tourists. It both addresses claims that fan studies continues to neglect these practices, especially within work on fan tourism, and complicates ideas surrounding the role of the touristic souvenir within experiences of transmedia tourism. Rather than exploring how fan tourists buy merchandise relevant to a specific location (e.g. an official item at a site such as the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour in the UK), the chapter focuses on fans' practice of taking relevant pre-bought items (such as dolls, cuddly toys, or action figures) to a location with them. Arguing that that such paratextual merchandise offers a material extension of transmedia narratives and worlds, the article posits that wider consideration of this fannish practice offers a way to better understand the links between merchandise, materiality, and transmedia tourism. It draws on an account of a visit to Florence, Italy in April 2016 which was inspired by fandom of the television series Hannibal (NBC 2013(NBC -2015 and the broader 'franchise' including films and novels which I refer to here as the 'Lecterverse' and which operate as transmedia texts and invite the fantourist to negotiate the different 'versions' of Florence presented in each. Whilst previous work has analysed how places are doubly coded as tourist and media sites or operate as special locations for different fans (see Lee 2013, Brooker 2007 and different texts, the 'Lecterverse' offers a case study in which fan-tourists must negotiate the layering of various versions of the same story/text across the city. Secondly, the article explores the use of paratextual objects such as merchandise in the fan-tourist experience, focusing on the use of a Hannibal Funko Pop! Vinyl doll during this visit to Florence. Carrying this item around sites of importance and inserting it into photographs at key locations allowed fan identities to be performed and displayed and for the links between the narrative world and the 'real' locations to be mediated. The article argues that whilst fans themselves cannot 'enter' the narrative world, the use of relevant fannish artefacts allows play with the borders between text, self, and object. In undertaking acts of what I am terming 'paratextualspatio-play' -the ludic use of paratextual objects in a specific place or location -fans can engage in the imaginative expansion of transmedia worlds via these practices.

Mordaith in Mallorca: Playing with Toy Tourism

“…The aim of this research was not to comment directly on the role of toy tourism in relation to ideas such as photoplay or the functionality of the toy as avatar, co-creator, storyteller, or influencer (Heljakka and Räikkönen 2023). What the previous work by Heljakka (2018); Heljakka and Ihamäki (2017); Räikkönen (2021a, 2023); Williams (2019);and Yildiz et al (2023) demonstrates is that adult toy play is good to think with. My contribution adds to this by emphasising the usefulness of a toy as a tool as part of an ethnographic inquiry in a tourist setting, as a means to engage with interlocuters and, thus, open the field in an even more unpredictable way than I might have imagined.…”

“…For Heljakka and Ihamäki, all these forms relate to 'toys that travel in the name of toy tourism' (Heljakka and Ihamäki 2017, p. 184, emphasis in the original); this activity can take place when: (1) individuals take a toy/toys on holiday; (2) a toy(s) is sent to a host as part of a hosting programme, either privately or through a specialist travel agency; or (3) through geocaching 8 activities. In Rebecca Williams's (2019) research, she describes how fans take what she calls paratexts (that is, dolls, action figures, soft toys, or, in her case, a Hannibal Funko Pop! Vinyl, based on the Hannibal Lecter films and TV shows) to meaningful story locations that allow the player to extend the attendant narrative in a playful manner.…”

Fan tourism and fan tourists: discussion on definitions and research issues

“…Buczkowska also indicates the cultural aspect of Olympic tourism (considered in the context of participation in great sports events) (Buczkowska, 2008). In the English-language literature, cultural fan tourism is associated with film-induced tourism, film-motivated tourism, teletourism and media tourism (Beeton, 2005;Karpovich, 2010;Williams, 2019). Iwashita (2006) also mentions literature tourism.…”

Fanoturystyka i fanoturysta – głos w dyskusji nad definicjami i problematyką badawczą

“…film-induced tourism, film-motivated tourism, teletourism) i medialną (ang. media tourism) (Beeton, 2005;Karpovich, 2010;Williams, 2019). Iwashita (2006) wymienia jeszcze turystykę literacką (ang.…”