Title: Capturing Participatory Culture: A Network Analysis of Fanfiction Communities and Reader Interactions
Abstract: Over the past 20 years, fanfiction writing has been on the rise. This fan-driven practice presents an ideal case for digital literary studies, as the texts are digitized, widely available, and challenge the status quo of the canon. Many fanfiction scholars have underlined the importance of the participatory aspect in studying the phenomenon. In this presentation, I show how interactions on fanfiction websites can be investigated through metadata-based network analysis. This approach provides fresh insights into textual reception and reader engagement, while offering a more comprehensive perspective on how fanfiction communities interact with texts and reshape them. As a result of this process, various interpretive communities emerge, each with its own dynamic. Some span across multiple fandoms, while others demonstrate different perspectives on a single canon, such as communities in the “Harry Potter” universe where a distinctive cluster focused on Hermione becomes visible.
The talk will take place online on October 24, 2024 at 18:00 CEST. Please register here to get the Zoom link: www.uni-potsdam.de/en/digital-humanities/aktivitaeten/code-and-culture-lecture-series/network-analysis-fanfiction
