Book Review of Textual Poachers: Participatory Culture of Fandom

Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture by American scholar Henry Jenkins breaks the stereotypes of fandom held by academia and puts forward original views based on cultural studies by Antonio Gramsci and “poaching” originally introduced by Michel de Certeau. He believes fans are not passive consumers of content, but poachers that reinterpret, appropriate and create textual meanings. Sharing similar ideas and preferences, fans build a participatory utopia against big media to share their opinions freely. This book provides a new paradigm for fan studies and helps develop and harness the potential of fan communities.