Transformative Works and Cultures - TWC (Organization for Transformative Works)
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Acafan methodologies and giving back to the fan community
No full textIn fan studies, researchers are encouraged to share their research with the fan communities they study, with some even suggesting that such a practice can be a way to ethically give back to the community. During a multiyear study of adult fans of Lego, several different ways to share research with the fan community were trialed and evaluated for their relative strengths. Community responses to these projects determined that both academic and creative practices for sharing research can successfully engage the community. Creative practice can capture the spirit of giving by making a contribution to the community by using its own modes of community participation
Methodological model for fictocritical fan fiction as research
No full textDistanced and objective research methodologies that generate a divide between the practitioner and their practice present a need for an authentic model that is more representative of the immersive, connected, and subjective experience of the writer-researcher. Fictocritical fan fiction as research methodology suggests a means of investigating the field of fan fiction studies from within through engagement in the practice of fan fiction itself. An exemplar study of X-Files (1993–2018) fandom shows how the creative researcher may authentically engage in fandom research and fan fiction practice while maintaining the necessary level of rigor appropriate for research
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No full textTaylor Swift's October 7, 2018 Instagram post marked her first public foray into politics, and indeed, media accounts credited her with inspiring 65,000 people to register to vote. However, Swift's social media posts reveal deliberate fan engagement strategies deployed for sustaining her celebrity status. These fan engagement strategies, like those of many other celebrities, present an illusion of fans' collective power while actually reinforcing a dynamic that privileges the celebrity over the fan
Who writes Harry Potter fan fiction? Passionate detachment, "zooming out," and fan fiction paratexts on AO3
No full textWho reads and writes fan fiction—and why—has long been a central concern of fan studies. Indeed, many of the foundational works in the field of fan studies aim to answer this question. These early studies set a paradigm for our understanding of who makes up fan fiction–centered communities nearly thirty years ago; however, it is clear that the paradigm is now outdated. To my knowledge, there are no wide-scale academic studies of how fan fiction authors identify themselves in online profiles, authors' notes, and other self-descriptive texts, although some fans have produced statistics. Rather, our understandings of fan fiction–centered communities instead rest on our own embedded experiences as fans. While our experiences are valuable, recent work has made it clear that focusing solely on our embedded perspectives may exclude a number of voices, experiences, and viewpoints from scholarly work. This article presents the results of a qualitative study that examines how fan fiction authors described themselves in the paratexts of 1,939 Harry Potter fan fiction works posted to Archive of Our Own (AO3)—over 1 percent of the Harry Potter fan fiction posted to AO3 at the time of the study. It aims to indicate demographic trends within the Harry Potter fandom, identify groups of fans who may have been elided from fan studies' core discourse, discuss why who writes fan fiction matters, and uncover future areas of research concern
Fan fiction as a valuable literacy practice
No full textThe future of literacy requires an incorporation of the new texts that are emerging from the evolution of popular culture. Though curriculum reform is a complex task, the source material is readily available to educators in the form of fan fiction. Fan fiction is a valuable literacy practice and should be used in the classroom because it encourages creativity and literacy appreciation, promotes socialization, offers a platform for self-exploration, and motivates students to advance their writing skills
Interdisciplinary methodologies for the fan studies bricoleur
No full textAs a relatively young field, which brings together scholars from a wide variety of different home disciplines, fan studies faces questions of disciplinary cohesion and methodological practice. Moving from a multidisciplinary space to an interdisciplinary field that creates new synergistic knowledge is facilitated by cross-discipline communication and collaboration. However, this is impeded by many barriers. Examining the history of design research provides useful parallels that may help us learn from the experiences of researchers who faced similar concerns. A bricolage approach will allow scholars in new fields of knowledge to benefit from an interdisciplinary landscape that provides methodological breadth. By using such an approach, fan studies researchers can borrow or synthesize the tools most appropriate to their research questions; for example, participatory action research is a methodology that fan studies researchers may find useful. Participatory approaches may cut through issues of fan/academic positioning and contribute to research with positive social value
Thoughts on an ethical approach to archives in fan studies
No full textMuch of fan studies research is concerned with archives, especially online archives created by and for fans. Across the discipline, however, methodologies still lack an element of self-reflection when it comes to the affective, embodied aspects of doing research in those archives. Such a methodology becomes especially crucial when we consider these archives as power structures. In a critique of the way fan studies has dealt with archives as a cultural phenomenon thus far, I work through a theoretical framework that allows for an awareness and consideration of one's embodied experience of digital archives by way of bodily affect and materiality. Analyzed is an autoethnographic account of the difference in materiality (and thus in affect) between two fan-made archives for Bethesda Game Studios' video game franchise The Elder Scrolls (1994–), with suggestions proposed for future efforts in crafting a general fan studies methodology for archival research
Hidden transcripts and public resistance
No full textFan fiction can be a way to explore emotional fallout after events in canon. It is not a stretch to use fan fiction to process real-life events. This small collection of observations is of some changes I have seen in the few fandoms I belong to in the wake of a few events in the early months of the Trump administration. The work fandom is doing has become a necessary part of how some people process these moments
"She's a fan, but this was supposed to be scientific": Fan misunderstandings and acafan mistakes
No full textI here reflect on my first forays into fan studies, two separate projects on fans' reactions to Tom Hiddleston's short-lived relationship with Taylor Swift. After discovering live tweets of my 2018 Fan Studies Network presentation that included yet-to-be-published survey research I collected on post-Hiddleswift fannish behaviors, some fans turned to the Anonymous Ask feature of a Hiddleston-focused Tumblr blog to interrogate the results, an article I had recently published, and me. I highlight this experience as a way to reexamine my methodological choices going forward when working with fan populations while writing for academic audiences. Ultimately, I realize future misinterpretations might be prevented by transparency as an acafan on Tumblr and more consistent interaction with fans across social media platforms
Rhetorical moves in disclosing fan identity in fandom scholarship
No full textThe position of the acafan in fan studies remains under negotiation, and authors must make choices about if and how identities as fans are disclosed within scholarship. An analysis of sixty-nine articles published in Transformative Works and Cultures identified the rhetorical moves made when disclosing fan identities and assessed the trends in these disclosures that are present across a sample of fan studies scholarship. These moves of disclosure facilitate rhetorical identification between author and audience, enable negotiation of overlapping fan and scholar identities, and demonstrate a valuing of fan identities in scholarship. The question of disclosing fannish identity reflects the ongoing evolutions of the role of acafandom and questions about the intersections of identity and scholarship. Making choices and practices explicit and visible will help acafans continue to examine the dual position of fan and scholar and will help better reflect the balance between the two