24. Almodóvar, Cyberfandom, and Participatory Culture

Summary

This essay scrutinizes the means through which a multifarious set of cybercultural practices construct the several meanings of “Almodóvar” within a series of complementary and, at times antagonistic, fields of cultural intervention. First, the chapter analyzes the producer–consumer interface on the web in terms of the shifting relationship between media companies, creators, and internet users. The author frames these practices within the Spanish context with an analysis of the polemical “Sinde Law” and the competing discourses in regard to piracy, copyright laws, and media policies surrounding it. Second, the author studies the centrality of appropriation and authorship in Almodóvar's early public persona through an analysis of his appearance on a Spanish 1980s television show. The author relates the recurrent exploration of fandom and artist–fan relations in his films with the ways in which Almodóvar disseminates his authorial voice on the web and deals with amateur reinventions of his works.