Capes, Corsets, Carnivals, and Chronotopes

Little scholarship exists on the topic of cosplay. In this paper, I propose an idea to begin crafting an academic space within which cosplay can exist to help start the conversation. As someone who cosplays at conventions (both comic and anime) frequently, I aim to examine the way I approach what it means to attend a convention in costume. Cosplay can only exist within convention spaces, which not only establishes a boundary around the convention itself but also creates a space allowing for the ritual and play inside of the event exclusively. Cosplay is a modern Carnival that exists within the chronotope of a convention. Bakhtin appropriated the term “chronotope” from mathematics to talk about genre in literature, and I in turn appropriate it from him. I can stitch this to his concept of the ritual space of Carnival and similar spectacles as well as Goffman’s theory of social framework. Like the carnivalesque, the convention has this boundary it cannot cross, a frame in which it must exist; otherwise it seems like a perversion of reality. The gown I created for New York Comic Con, which was a reimagined version of DC Comic’s Tim Drake’s second Robin costume, was popular with both fans of the character as well as those unaware. However, I waited until I was in the convention center to change into the gown because it felt wrong to wear it on the subway. Cosplay is accepted only within the convention