‘We’re Just Fantasizing Aloud Here’: Fantasy and Online Communities in Dennis Cooper’s The Sluts (2005)
Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: How do fantasies build and destroy online communities? What are fantasies like online? This paper explores how Dennis Cooper's work describes the role of sexual fantasies in online interactions and how The Sluts marks a turning point in Cooper’s conceptualisation of fantasy. In particular, I argue that The Sluts narrates how an online community attempts to manage the tension between fantasy and reality in an anonymous setting. This unresolvable tension eventually forces the community’s collapse. Furthermore, this paper compares The Sluts with other work by Cooper (Frisk, Guide, and The Dennis Cooper Blog) so as to situate The Sluts in Cooper’s broader oeuvre.
Source: English Studies
Author: Jaime Garcia Iglesias
Institution: Universidad de Oviedo
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4220977044