From Textual Poachers to Textual Gifters: Exploring Fan Community and Celebrity in the Field of Fan Cultural Production by Bertha Catherine LP Chin School of Journalism, Media & Cultural Studies Cardiff University 15 November 2010 UMI Number: U584515 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U584515 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 SUMMARY Early fan studies positioned fans as ‘textual poachers’ (Jenkins, 1992), suggesting that fans poach characters and materials from texts as an act of resistance towards commercial culture to form their own readings through fan cultural production such as fan fiction. As such, fans are often presented as a unified, communal group interacting within the context of fan communities that are considered alternative social communities with ‘no established hierarchy’ (Bacon-Smith, 1992, p. 41). However, Milly Williamson argued that fans do not all operate from a position of cultural marginality. Fans not only go on to collaborate with the media producers they allegedly poach from, they also “engage in elitist distinctions between themselves and other...fans” (Williamson, 2005, p. 103). In this dissertation, I look at fan cultural production (specifically fan fiction) by appropriating Bourdieu’s (1993) theory on the field of cultural production. I also suggest that the field of fan cultural production manifests the principles of a gift economy (Mauss, 1954). In circulating fan cultural production as gifts, fans are entering into a social relationship of reciprocity, where fan reputation, or fan symbolic capital, becomes tied to the gifts presented to the fan community and the social network of the fan author. The accumulation of fan social, fan cultural and fan symbolic capitals creates a subgroup of fans who are often treated like celebrities by their peers, and these fan subcultural celebrities often go on to determine the social and cultural norms of a fan community. This often results in conflict within fandom as fan status is frequently contested and challenged. By employing an ethnographic study on the fandoms of The X-Files, Angel and the re­ imagined Battlestar Galactica, I argue that fan culture is not as homogenous as early fan studies proposed as the boundaries of community and fan celebrity status are frequently challenged. Acknowledgements This has been a long and arduous journey, the end of which would not have been possible without the support and care of many friends and family members along the years. Heartfelt thanks and appreciation go to my tireless supervisor. Matt Hills, for his patience and dedication (and constant reassurances!), without which this dissertation would not have seen the light of day. Many breakthroughs in the dissertation were only possible because of our discussions and his encouragement. I am forever grateful for his guidance, friendship and support. Many thanks also go to colleagues at London Metropolitan University - especially James Bennett, Mike Chopra-Gant, Peter Lewis, Paul Kerr, Gholam Khiabany and Sami Ramadani - who were always ready with words of wisdom and encouragement when I needed them. I would also like to extend special thanks and gratitude to Jonathan Gray, for his unfailing friendship and encouragement throughout the years, and most importantly, for convincing me not to give up on the PhD all those years ago and go to Cardiff instead! Thanks also go to friends who provided much respite, encouragement, sanity and love, especially during the stressful periods: Angelina Karpovich, Hung Hsiu Chin, Lokman Tsui, Selmin Kara, Lori Hitchcock Morimoto, Holly Dignard, Lisa Wilson- Wright, Rebecca Thomas, Inger-Lise Kalviknes Bore, and last but not least, Amy Chin. Beatrice Kuek, Raquel Peck and Donna Chong. I would also like to thank all the fans who have provided inspiration, gave their time to answer the interview questions and regaled me with wonderful tales - I hope I can continue to tell these stories. And of course, none of this would be possible without the support, constant encouragement and love of my family: my parents, Victor and Bibiana; brother, Bernard; uncle, Vincent; aunt, Annie; and Jiji the cat (for always trying to occupy any form of paper/books I lay out). For always being there to remind me not to over-stress myself, and for looking after (among others) an extremely grumpy cat in Malaysia! CONTENTS 1. Introduction: Setting the scene 1 Fan studies so far 4 Fandom as a gift economy 11 The X-Files and Fandom 2.0 16 Chapter breakdowns 21 2. Literature Review 26 Locating the fan individual 29 Fan fiction 45 De-commoditisation of the text 50 Gift exchange theory' explored 55 The fan fiction potlatch as a field of cultural production 66 Fan fiction fandom as a field of restricted production 73 Fan capitals 79 Conclusion 89 3. Methodology: The journey 92 Applying ethnography 93 A utoethnography of the researcher 99 The research process and its complications 105 4. From communities to micro-communities of fandom 119 Defining community and micro-community 121 The fan community in conflict 131 Micro-communities and fringe fandoms 144 Conclusion 156 5. The value of fan cultural production 160 Value o f a story: the act o f collecting 162 Ephemeral/Gossamer, LJ or Fanfiction.Net: the boundaries offan fiction posting 169 Contesting fan cultural status and value: fanfic_hate on LJ 187 Conclusion 198 6. The symbolic power of the media producer 202 The personal blogger 203 Media power and celebrity intimacy 206 The media producer blogs , 222 The producer's symbolic power 236 Conclusion 240 7. The semi-professional fan as fan celebrity 241 Fans as co-marketers 244 Fans as subcultural celebrities 258 Fan-tagonism: conflict within fandom 275 Conclusion 282 8. Conclusion 285 Bibliography 296 Appendix 316 Chapter 1: Introduction: Setting the scene Fan cultural production (in the form of fan fiction, meta, fan art and fan videos) is often observed within the context of the fan community, but is normally theorised around the notion that fans poach the original material to insert their own meanings into the text as a form of resistance towards commercial culture (Jenkins, 1992; Bacon-Smith, 1992). These early fan studies also portray fan communities as alternative, social communities that are considerably more democratic than real life communities, suggesting that fandom is homogenous. However, despite its frequent depiction as homogenous, fan communities are often fraught with conflict, with fans who have contributed to fandom and accumulated a certain level of reputation being treated like (subcultural) celebrities by their peers. These fans often go on to become community leaders and respected fan fiction authors, determining the accepted fan social and cultural norms within fandom, suggesting the existence of a social hierarchy that fan scholars have previously denied the existence of (Bacon-Smith, 1992, p. 41). Milly Williamson argues that, “fan scholars have either posited a homogenous ‘mainstream’ culture, or have concentrated their analysis on one set of cultural values; either on the economic influences in fandom, or on the non­ commercial but elitist influences in fandom...[Early fan studies] pose a one­ dimensional notion of dominant culture in order to stand in for a thorough discussion of that which fans are said to resist” (2005, pp. 110-111). In this dissertation, I want to propose that fans are textual gifters, their cultural production circulated and exchanged like gifts; where fandom and the field of fan cultural production represent the principles of the gift economy rather than the 1 socially subordinated position of fans as textual poachers, which places fandom as an act of resistance; that fans collaborate with the commercial culture they allegedly poach from as much as they resist commercial culture’s attempts at controlling them. In an article for the e-joumal Transformative Works and Cultures, Scott (2009) suggests that recent academic works (Hellekson, 2009; Jenkins et al., 2009) that have drawn parallels between fandom and the gift economy have “acknowledged the inability to engage with gift economies and commodity culture as disparate systems, as commodity culture begins selectively appropriating the gift economy’s ethos for its own economic gain”. These accounts explore the ways in which the media industry has courted fans. Fans are not merely considered “the most valued customer...most passionate, dedicated, and actively engaged” (Jenkins, 2006, p. 73), they are also providing free labour for media producers who harness fans’ attachment and dedication to the text for “word of mouth marketing” (Cochran, 2008, p. 246), a move that has proved financially favourable to the media industry (although often at the expense of fan cultural production, as Cochran highlighted in her study). But more than that, fan fiction, or more appropriately, fan cultural production is also considered a gift culture. De Kosnik argues that, “many scholars of fan studies claim