MASTERARBEIT / MASTER’S THESIS Titel der Masterarbeit / Title of the Master‘s Thesis Harry Potter Fans. An Anthropological Study on Identity, Practice and the Appropriation of the Fan Object Harry Potter verfasst von / submitted by Alena Brunner BA angestrebter akademischer Grad / in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (MA) Wien, 2016 / Vienna 2016 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt / A 066 656 degree programme code as it appears on the student record sheet: Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt / Masterstudium DDP CREOLE-Cultural Differences degree programme as it appears on and Transnational Processes UG2002 the student record sheet: Betreut von / Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Doz. Dr. Elke Mader 2 3 4 Acknowledgements Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand. – Albert Einstein This master project would not have been possible if it wasn’t for the narrative that stands at the centre of this study. Therefore, thank you to Joanne K. Rowling for creating the world so many people feel so deeply connected to. The story of Harry Potter enriched my life – opening up the world of fantasy and friendship. Also, this study would have not been possible without the help and support of the people I met in the course of my research. Therefore I want to thank all my research partners. To the Nerdfighter community: don’t you dare ever forget to be awesome! To the members of the quidditch team Vienna Vanguards: thank you for encouraging me and for enduring and answering my endless questions. Next to these wonderful people I want to dedicate this study to all Harry Potter fans that encouraged me to stay engaged in the narrative and who, without knowing, made me feel home in the world of fandom. By creating fan content, such as fan art, you create a powerful community that transfers the fictional narrative into something even more real. Also I want to thank my family for their support, especially my grandmother Inge, my mother Andrea, my sisters Ayse and Amelie and my aunts Barbara, Karin and Stella, for being the wonderful women they are and creating a setting in which being a “know-it-all” is cherished. Thank you to my fathers, Herbert, Andreas and Franz for encouraging me to ask questions and for supporting my pursuits. When faced with the task of writing a master thesis the project is not, as many will think, the work of a single person, but relies on the seemingly endless support of friends and colleagues. I want to thank my supervisor Elke Mader for her input, feedback and her dedication to the field of the study of myth, cinema and fans. Thank you to Mona, without whom my life would be less awesome, for her feedback and friendship. Thank you to Sara for being badass and the best roommate ever. Thank you to Victor for accompanying me all the way. Last, but not least, I want to thank Cory, Helena and Thomas for their help and proofreading skills – all the credits for Oxford commas go to you. 5 6 1. Introduction and Research Questions 11 2. Who is Harry Potter? And why do we talk about him? 14 2.1. Magic, Ritual and Technology in Harry Potter 15 2.2. The Potterverse 19 2.3. Canon, Adaptation, and Transmediality – The Intertext that Creates the Potterverse 21 3. Harry Potter Conquered the Academics: the Current State of Interdisciplinary Research on Harry Potter Fans 24 4. Theoretic Framework: Fans and Fandom – Agency, Practice, and Material Culture 30 4.1. Fan Studies, an Interdisciplinary Field 30 4.2. Fans, Fan Communities and Globalised Fandom 35 4.3. Practice, Community and Media Anthropology 37 4.4. Culture and Community: Fandom, Identity and the Other 41 4.5. Fans and Stuff: Identity, Material Culture and Practice 43 4.6. Concluding the Theory 47 5. Methods: Studying Harry Potter Fans 48 5.1. Fan and Researcher – “Anthropology at home” and the Method of Autoethnography 48 5.2. Sampling Harry Potter Fans 50 5.2.1. “Nerds are allowed to love stuff” – Harry Potter Fans and the “Nerdfighters” Community 50 5.2.2. The Final Sampling 52 5.3. Qualitative Research Methods 53 5.3.1. Virtual Ethnography 54 5.3.2. “Break a leg!” - Participant Observation with the Vienna Vanguards 54 5.3.3. Qualitative Interviews 55 5.3.4. Photo Elicitation 57 5.3.5. Qualitative Content Analysis 58 7 5.4. Mixed Methods Approach and Quantitative Research Methods 58 6. “Did someone say Harry Potter?” – Identity, Community, Fan Practices and Material Culture 59 6.1. The Harry Potter Generation – Harry Potter Fans and the Fascination for the Potterverse 60 6.1.1. “A passion!” – Characteristics of Potter Fans and the Fascination for the Narrative 60 6.1.2. “A place to call home” – Growing up with Harry Potter 65 6.1.3. “My inner Hermione was really strong” – Identification with, and Fascination for the Characters 71 6.1.4. Slytherclaw and Gryffinpuff – House Identity and the Institution of Pottermore 73 6.2. “It’s real for us” – Fans, Fandom, and Community 78 6.2.1. Fandom – Being a Harry Potter Fan as a State of Mind 78 6.2.2. “They are everywhere” – Fans and Fan Community 80 6.2.3. The Other (fan) 86 6.3. Fan Practices, Fan Work, and the Appropriation of the Fan Object Harry Potter 88 6.3.1. Fan Practices – A Short Overview 90 6.3.2. Tumblr vs. Knitting – Fan Practice in an Online and Offline Setting 92 6.3.3. Rereading, Intertextual Knowledge and Marcus Flint 94 6.3.4. “Wait, what?” – Transmedia and the Intermedial Knowledge of Fans 97 6.3.6. Canon vs. Non-Canon: WolfStar – it’s Fanon 106 6.3.7. The Lightning Bolt Scar – Harry Potter and Material Culture 113 7. Case Study: The Vienna Vanguards and the Appropriation of a Magical Sport 120 7.2. Practicing Quidditch – Magic goes Muggle 121 7.3. “I just want to win!” – Quidditch as a Fan Practice? 126 7.4. The Quidditch Community – Quidkids and Potterheads 128 7.5. The Sport and the Fans – A Discussion on the Case Study 138 8. Conclusion 140 9. References 146 9.1. Bibliography 146 8 9.2. Online Sources 152 9.3. Film and TV 154 9.4. Theater 155 9.5. Interviews 155 9.6. Illustrations 155 10. Appendix 159 Semi-Structured Interview Guide - Harry Potter Fans 159 Semi-Structured Interview Guide - Vienna Vanguards 160 Questionnaires – Harry Potter Fans 161 Questionnaires – Vienna Vanguards 166 Illustrations Used in the Method of Photo Elicitation 171 Abstract (english) 174 Abstract (deutsch) 175 Curriculum Vitae Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert. 9 10 1. Introduction and Research Questions In February 2016 Harry Potter, again, made the headlines. The announcement of an eighth book was planted in big letters on newspaper covers all over the world. Once more, nine years after the release of the final novel, the world got excited about the story of “the boy who lived”. The news concerning the instalment of a Harry Potter theatre piece, accompanied by a release of the script, stirred the minds and hearts of Harry Potter fans worldwide. Why and how does Harry Potter matter to fans? Why and how do fans stay engaged in the narrative? And how is the relationship between fans and fan object articulated? The aim of this study is to discuss the complexity of identity in the context of fandom. It focuses on how fan identity is constructed, consumed, and articulated, discussing how fans identify with the fan object Harry Potter (HP) and how (fan)identity is negotiated in fan communities. Exploring how HP fans perceive themselves as fans and how the individuals’ identities are shaped by the self-attribution as Harry Potter fans, the study approaches questions concerning the relationship between fan and fan object. This discussion includes the question of how material culture and language are used as symbols that signalise belonging and how fan practices and personal relationships contribute to the construction of fan identity. Ill. 1 11 The fan communities surrounding the Harry Potter franchise are part of a major fandom. Next to such big players as The Lord of The Rings, Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Sherlock and the DC and Marvel comics, Harry Potter can be named as one of the most influential pop cultural brands. The fandoms surrounding these franchises have one thing in common - when people decide to engage with a specific thing in such an intense way identity is claimed. Fan identity then becomes a way of how people see themselves, and a reference point for the individuals’ identities. From my perspective this aspect makes fandom as an academic field in anthropology especially appealing. The main research question of this study places its interest on how the fandoms’ group identity is constructed and how individual identities of fans are influenced by and negotiated within fan communities; focusing on how fans experience fandom and how this experience is articulated in processes of appropriation of the fan object. Therefore, the aspect of the symbolic usage of material culture and language is discussed. A guideline of further research questions was developed to structure the literature research, as well as the empirical study: Questions regarding the literature: - How did the interdisciplinary field of fan studies emerge and what are the main approaches in researching fans, developed in this discipline? - What characteristics of fans and fandoms are established in theoretic literature? - What are theoretical approaches towards identity and community in the context of fandom? - What role do intertextuality and practice play in fandoms? - In how