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What Is Fan Fiction?

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What Is Fan Fiction? Go Write Your Own Story: An exploration of online fan fiction and authorship through the themes of authority, conflict and legitimacy Gemma Bothe BA (Hons) 2012 The University of Western Australia This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The University of Western Australia School of Social Sciences Disciplines of Anthropology & Sociology, and Media & Communication 2016 Abstract The relationships between media producers, consumers and fans are essential to understanding the production and consumption of media products. This thesis seeks to examine the relationships between those that participate, create, consume and engage with mass media through the lens of fan fiction, and other fan-associated practices within the Web 2.0 environment. The concept of authorship is shown to be authoritative, economic and emotional, which fan-fiction participants both subscribe to and reject. Focusing specifically on the Arrow (2012−) fandom, as well as various other canons, I examine the themes of authority, conflict and legitimacy in order to argue that the notion of authorship plays a central role in how consumers and producers interact with media and each other. This thesis uses online participant observation, as well as semi-structured interviews with published authors and fan-fiction writers, to study several sites of fan and media producer interaction. These sites of interaction include: the social-media and fan-fiction discussions of romantic relationships (termed ‘ships’ in fan-fiction parlance) in the television series Arrow; episodes of the television series Supernatural (2005−); actor Stephen Amell’s Facebook page; and the commercial fan-fiction website, Kindle Worlds. At each of these sites, the discussions, conflict and interactions between fans and media producers are examined. These interactions are used to show how both media producers and fans construct themselves as sites of authority and legitimacy in regard to the media. This is the result of a cultural i formation of oppositional engagement in which media producers and fans struggle for control over the ways in which their media products are interpreted, used and consumed. Through media producers’ and fans’ construction of themselves as authors, authorities and ‘real fans’, this thesis shows how media producers and consumers are affected by and exert power within a digital environment, as those engaged with the media seek to implement a dominant vision of the field of media production and consumption. Despite the current landscape of production, distribution and engagement with media undergoing significant change, contestation over what authorship is and who can lay claim to it continues to be central to understanding how producers and consumers of media are created and recognised in a digital environment. ii Acknowledgements There are too many people to thank individually for their help, support, encouragement and advice in creating this thesis, but I am going to give it a try. Firstly, thank you to the University of Western Australia for giving me financial support and the opportunity to write a thesis on fan fiction. Thank you to my supervisors, Richard Davis and Rob Cover. Your feedback, form signing and ability to interpret both my long-winded and monosyllabic responses to questions are greatly appreciated. Thank you, Richard, for your understanding when my progress slowed to a crawl once I took on a student representative role; and thank you, Rob, for signing on as a supervisor halfway through the project. I would like to thank all of my peers and friends in Anthropology & Sociology, Communication & Media Studies—in particular, Kara, Lara, Jocelyn and Crystal. You have all sat through various meals with me as I have talked at you in an attempt to work out ideas and concepts, and even formatting. Thank you, Rukmini and Aisling, for being the other crazy people at UWA writing theses on popular culture. Thank you to my other friends from various places around UWA and beyond for your support; you know who you are. Thank you to Audrey, Christo (yes, I mentioned you by name), Lauren and Lex for all the wine we have drunk, the Game of Thrones episodes we have watched, and the iii pep talks you have given me. You have put up with my daily thesis ‘freak outs’ for far too long. Thank you, Pat Johns, for helping me proofread my thesis. A special thank you goes to my brothers, Ryan and Jarrad, for living with me throughout this process. I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as you think it was. Thank you, Mum and Dad, for valuing education the way you do—without your support and encouragement I would have never made it this far. Finally, I would like to dedicate this thesis to both of my nans, Dorothy Strange and June Bothe. You were with me at the start, but didn’t quite make it to the end. iv Thesis Declaration The examination of the thesis is an examination of the work of the student. The work must have been substantially conducted by the student during enrolment in the degree. This thesis does not contain work that I have published, nor work under review for publication. Student signature ............................................................................................ April 2016 Gemma Bothe Disciplines of Anthropology & Sociology, and Communications & Media School of Social Sciences The University of Western Australia v Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................. i Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ iii Thesis Declaration ........................................................................................................... v Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................... 1 Something familiar, something strange ...................................................................... 1 What is fan fiction? ...................................................................................................... 4 Why study fans? .......................................................................................................... 17 Disciplinary approaches ............................................................................................ 20 Power, authority, legitimacy and authorship ............................................................ 12 Thesis overview ........................................................................................................... 23 Chapter 2: Methodology ................................................................................................. 33 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 33 Digital ethnography ................................................................................................... 36 The online ‘field’ ........................................................................................................ 39 The ‘field’ of online fan fiction .................................................................................. 44 Participants and recruitment ..................................................................................... 51 Participant observation, interviews and ethics ........................................................ 56 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 65 Chapter 3: A History of Fan Fiction .............................................................................. 68 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 68 Oral and literate cultures .......................................................................................... 70 The emergence of literacy ......................................................................................... 74 Fandom and fan fiction .............................................................................................. 77 The Internet ............................................................................................................... 84 Literacy online ........................................................................................................... 87 Prosumers and Web 2.0 ............................................................................................. 90 vi Remix and the law ...................................................................................................... 97 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 104 Chapter 4: Authorship .................................................................................................. 108 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 108 Barthes, Foucault and authorship ............................................................................. 114 Authors believe they are alive ................................................................................... 117 Fan writers are, and are not, authors who may, or may not, be dead. ................... 125 The murder of the fan author ................................................................................... 135 The author is dead and alive until you open the
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