Articles by J Caroline Toy
Published 2018 in the Journal of Fandom Studies [paywalled; please contact author for information... more Published 2018 in the Journal of Fandom Studies [paywalled; please contact author for information]:
The majority of studies of pilgrimage focus on sites and journeys marked as reli- gious or spiritual by their histories or so designated by their participants, with only a small proportion of the literature addressing pilgrimage and the so-called secular. Yet in the case of fan pilgrimage – travels by fans to places associated with a text, celebrity or creative production – arguably the opposite problem occurs. Considerations of fan pilgrimage often ignore the religious connotations of the term in favour of a stricter separation between spiritual and secular. Understandings of fan pilgrimage places as mere points of convergence between fiction and reality or opportunities for fans to negotiate that separation miss the depth of the fan pilgrim’s experience of and creative contributions to fannish spaces. This article corrects that imbalance by approaching fan pilgrimage places as sacred spaces, constructed, ritualized and experienced in much the same way traditionally reli- gious spaces are. The author argues that fan pilgrimage sites concentrate and bring into focus the multiple geographies of fans’ relationships to texts and celebrate – even sanctify – their entanglement. Like some shrines, they are materializations of interpretive paradigms. This article uses the case of the Sherlock pilgrimage place at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London to demonstrate the complexity of the sacred landscape at a fan pilgrimage site and the agency of fans in constructing it.
Book Chapters by J Caroline Toy
Understanding Religion and Popular Culture, 2nd ed., 2023
Conference Presentations by J Caroline Toy
Popular Culture Association National Conference, March 2018
Illustrated version at the link!
American Folklore Society Annual Meeting, October 2017
Midwest American Academy of Religion, March 2017
American Folklore Society Annual Meeting 2016
Popular Culture Association National Conference, April 2015
Papers by J Caroline Toy
The Journal of Fandom Studies, 2017
Published 2018 in the Journal of Fandom Studies [paywalled; please contact author for information... more Published 2018 in the Journal of Fandom Studies [paywalled; please contact author for information]: The majority of studies of pilgrimage focus on sites and journeys marked as reli- gious or spiritual by their histories or so designated by their participants, with only a small proportion of the literature addressing pilgrimage and the so-called secular. Yet in the case of fan pilgrimage – travels by fans to places associated with a text, celebrity or creative production – arguably the opposite problem occurs. Considerations of fan pilgrimage often ignore the religious connotations of the term in favour of a stricter separation between spiritual and secular. Understandings of fan pilgrimage places as mere points of convergence between fiction and reality or opportunities for fans to negotiate that separation miss the depth of the fan pilgrim’s experience of and creative contributions to fannish spaces. This article corrects that imbalance by approaching fan pilgrimage places as sacred spaces, constructed, ritualized and experienced in much the same way traditionally reli- gious spaces are. The author argues that fan pilgrimage sites concentrate and bring into focus the multiple geographies of fans’ relationships to texts and celebrate – even sanctify – their entanglement. Like some shrines, they are materializations of interpretive paradigms. This article uses the case of the Sherlock pilgrimage place at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London to demonstrate the complexity of the sacred landscape at a fan pilgrimage site and the agency of fans in constructing it.
Book Reviews by J Caroline Toy
Transformative Works and Cultures, 2018
Review of Liza Potts, Melissa Beattie, Emily Dallaire, Katie Grimes, and Kelly Turner, Participat... more Review of Liza Potts, Melissa Beattie, Emily Dallaire, Katie Grimes, and Kelly Turner, Participatory memory: Fandom experiences across time and space. Intermezzo, 2018, online at http://participatorymemory.org/book/index (ISBN 978-0-9864333-6-8).
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Articles by J Caroline Toy
The majority of studies of pilgrimage focus on sites and journeys marked as reli- gious or spiritual by their histories or so designated by their participants, with only a small proportion of the literature addressing pilgrimage and the so-called secular. Yet in the case of fan pilgrimage – travels by fans to places associated with a text, celebrity or creative production – arguably the opposite problem occurs. Considerations of fan pilgrimage often ignore the religious connotations of the term in favour of a stricter separation between spiritual and secular. Understandings of fan pilgrimage places as mere points of convergence between fiction and reality or opportunities for fans to negotiate that separation miss the depth of the fan pilgrim’s experience of and creative contributions to fannish spaces. This article corrects that imbalance by approaching fan pilgrimage places as sacred spaces, constructed, ritualized and experienced in much the same way traditionally reli- gious spaces are. The author argues that fan pilgrimage sites concentrate and bring into focus the multiple geographies of fans’ relationships to texts and celebrate – even sanctify – their entanglement. Like some shrines, they are materializations of interpretive paradigms. This article uses the case of the Sherlock pilgrimage place at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London to demonstrate the complexity of the sacred landscape at a fan pilgrimage site and the agency of fans in constructing it.
Book Chapters by J Caroline Toy
Conference Presentations by J Caroline Toy
Papers by J Caroline Toy
Book Reviews by J Caroline Toy
The majority of studies of pilgrimage focus on sites and journeys marked as reli- gious or spiritual by their histories or so designated by their participants, with only a small proportion of the literature addressing pilgrimage and the so-called secular. Yet in the case of fan pilgrimage – travels by fans to places associated with a text, celebrity or creative production – arguably the opposite problem occurs. Considerations of fan pilgrimage often ignore the religious connotations of the term in favour of a stricter separation between spiritual and secular. Understandings of fan pilgrimage places as mere points of convergence between fiction and reality or opportunities for fans to negotiate that separation miss the depth of the fan pilgrim’s experience of and creative contributions to fannish spaces. This article corrects that imbalance by approaching fan pilgrimage places as sacred spaces, constructed, ritualized and experienced in much the same way traditionally reli- gious spaces are. The author argues that fan pilgrimage sites concentrate and bring into focus the multiple geographies of fans’ relationships to texts and celebrate – even sanctify – their entanglement. Like some shrines, they are materializations of interpretive paradigms. This article uses the case of the Sherlock pilgrimage place at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London to demonstrate the complexity of the sacred landscape at a fan pilgrimage site and the agency of fans in constructing it.