"Let's Party!"
Harry Potter fan fiction sites as social settings for narrative gender constructions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v9i2.17330Keywords:
Gender construction, Fan Fiction, Narrative, Subject positionAbstract
Online communication is often presented in research as offering ways for young people to explore various forms of masculinity and femininity, which, in turn, could extend the notions of gendered identity. This paper explores how a Harry Potter fan fiction website can function as an online setting for gender identity construction among young fans. A positioning analysis of a small story told in an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) shows that although traditional gendered subject positions are explored and troubled in the story and its telling, heteronormativity prevails through the interpretative repertoires made available by the textual universe of Harry Potter. On the other hand, the positioning analysis of the small story activates an understanding of the interplay between the relational order among story characters and among the storytellers that can be seen as opening up a space between what is the told and the telling that allows the fans to experiment with aspects of gender identities that are related to power and control within an interpretative repertoire of heteronormativity.
References
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Bamberg, M. (2004) Form and functions of ‘slut bashing’ in male identity constructions in 15-year-olds: ‘I know it may sound mean to say this, but we couldn’t really care less about her anyway’. Human Development 47(6): 331–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000081036
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Bamberg, M. (2010) Who am I? Narration and its contribution to self and identity. Theory and Psychology 21(1): 1–22.
Bamberg, M. and Georgakopoulou, A. (2008) Small stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysis. Text and Talk 28(3): 377–396. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/TEXT.2008.018
Black, R. W. (2008) Adolescents and Online Fan Fiction: New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies. New York: Peter Lang.
Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
Danet, B., Ruedenberg-Wright, L. and Rosenbaum-Tamari, Y. (1997) ‘Hmmm … where’s that smoke coming from?’ Writing, play and performance on Internet Relay Chat. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication 2(4). Retrieved on 15 April 2013 from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1997.tb00195.x/full.
Davies, B. and Harré, R. (1990) Positioning: the discursive production of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior 20: 43–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5914.1990.tb00174.x
Fish, S. (1993) Att tolka Variorumupplagan. In C. Entzenberger and C. Hansson (eds) Modern litteraturteori: Från rysk formalism till dekonstruktion Del 2 164–91. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Georgakopoulou, A. (2006) Small and large identities in narrative (inter)-action. In D. Schiffrin, M. Bamberg, and A. de Fina (ed.) Discourse and Identity 83–102. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Georgakopoulou, A. (2008) ‘On MSN with buff boys’: self- and other-identity claims in the context of small stories. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12(5): 597–626. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00384.x
Gray, L. (2008) A fangirl’s crush. Houston Chronicle (12 March). Retrieved on 26 May 2015 from www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/moms/5611220.html.
Gregson, K. S. (2005) ‘What if the lead character looks like me?’ Girl fans of shoujo anime and their websites. In S. Mazzarella (ed.) Girl Wide Web: Girls, the Internet, and the Negotiation of Identity 121–40. New York: Peter Lang.
Grisso, A. D., Ashley, D. and Weiss, D. (2005) What are gURLs talking about? Adolescent girls’ construction of sexual identity on gURL.com. In S. Mazzarella (ed.) Girl Wide Web: Girls, the Internet, and the Negotiation of Identity 31–49. New York: Peter Lang.
Gupta, S. (2009) Re-reading Harry Potter (2nd edn). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9780230279711
Harré, R., Moghaddam, F. M., Cairnie, T. P., Rothbart, D. and Sabat, S. R. (2009) Recent advances in positioning theory. Theory and Psychology 19(1): 5–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959354308101417
Heilman, E. (2003) Blue wizards and pink witches: representations of gender identity and power. In E. Heilman (ed.) Harry Potter’s World: Multidisciplinary Critical Perspectives 221–39. New York: Routledge.
Hellekson, K. and Busse, K. (ed.) (2006) Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Herring, S. (1999) Interactional coherence in CMC. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication 4(4). Retrieved on 16 April 2013 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1999.tb00106.x/full. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/hicss.1999.772674
Isaksson, M. and Lindgren Leavenworth, M. (2009) Queera lustar: fan fiction i vampyrmiljö. Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap 3(4): 23–37.
Isaksson, M. and Lindgren Leavenworth, M. (2011) Gazing, initiating, desiring: alternative constructions of agency and sex in ‘Twifics’. In M. Larsson and A. Steiner (ed.) Interdisciplinary Approaches to Twilight: Studies in Fiction, Media and a Contemporary Cultural Experience 127–42. Umeå: Nordic Academy Press.
Jenkins, H. (1992) Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. New York: Routledge.
Karlsson, M. (2011) ‘It was Emma’s army who bullied that girl’: a narrative perspective on bullying and identity making in three girls’ friendship groups. Narrative Inquiry 21(1): 24–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/ni.21.1.02kar
Karlsson, M. (2013) Emotional identification with teacher identities in student teachers’ narrative interaction. European Journal of Teacher Education 36(2): 133–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2012.686994
Kustritz, A. (2004) Slashing the romance narrative. Journal of American Culture 26(3): 371–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1542-734X.00098
Lindgren Leavenworth, M. and Isaksson, M. (2013) Fanged Fan Fiction: Variations on Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.
Mazzarella, S. (ed.) (2005) Girl Wide Web: Girls, the Internet, and the Negotiation of Identity. New York: Peter Lang.
McRobbie, A. (1991) Feminism and Youth Culture: from ‘Jackie’ to ‘Just Seventeen’. Basingstoke: Macmillan Education.
Ochs, E. and Capps, L. (2001) Living Narrative: Creating Lives in Everyday Storytelling. London: Harvard University Press.
Olin-Scheller, C. (2008) Trollkarl eller mugglare? Tolkningsgemenskaper inom ett nytt medielandskap. [Wizard of muggle? Interpretative communities within a new media landscape.] Didaktiskt Forum 5(2): 73–85.
Olin-Scheller, C. (2010) Literary prosumers: young people’s reading and writing in a new media landscape. Education Inquiry 1(1): 41–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/edui.v1i1.21931
Potter, J. and Wetherell, M. (1987) Discourse and Social Psychology: Beyond Attitudes and Behaviour. London: Sage.
Pugh, S. (2005) The Democratic Genre: Fan fiction in a Literary Context. Glasgow: Seren.
Pugh, T. and Wallace, D. L. (2006) Heteronormative heroism and queering the school story in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Children's Literature Association Quarterly 31(3): 260–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/chq.2006.0053
Robinson, L. (2007) The cyberself: the self-ing project goes online, symbolic interaction in the digital age. New Media and Society 9(1): 93–110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461444807072216
Salmon C. and Symons, D. (2004) Slash fiction and human mating psychology. Journal of Sex Research 41: 94–100. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224490409552217
Sarbin T. R. and Kitsuse, J. I. (1994) A prologue to constructing the social. In T. R. Sarbin and J. I. Kitsuse (ed.) Constructing the Social 1–17. London: Sage.
Sevick Bortree, D. (2005) Presentation of self on the web: an ethnographic study of teenage girls' weblogs. Education, Communication and Information 5(1): 25–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14636310500061102
Shariff (2008) Cyber-Bullying: Issues and Solutions for the School, the Classroom and the Home. Abingdon: Routledge.
Stern, S. (2002) Virtually speaking: girls’ self-disclosure on the WWW. Women’s Studies in Communication 25(2): 223–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2002.10162447
Stern, S. (2004) Expressions of identity online: prominent features and gender differences in adolescents’ World Wide Web home pages. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 48(2): 218–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4802_4
Stokoe, E. and Smithson, J. (2001) Making gender relevant: conversation analysis and gender categories in interaction. Discourse and Society 12(2): 217–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957926501012002005
Sundén, J. (2002) Cyberbodies: writing gender in digital self-presentations. In J. Fornäs, K. Klein, M. Ladendorf, J. Sundén and M. Sveningsson (ed.) Digital Borderlands: Cultural Studies of Identity and Interactivity on the Internet 79–111. New York: Peter Lang.
Sunderland, J. (2011) Language, Gender and Children’s Fiction. London: Continuum.
Sveningsson Elm, M. (2001) Creating a Sense of Community: Experiences from a Swedish Web Chat. Linköping Studies in Art and Science 233. Linköping: Linköping University.
Turkle, S. (1997) Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Touchstone.
Warner, M. (1993) Introduction. In M. Warner (ed.) Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory vii–xxxi. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Watson, C. (2007) Small stories, positioning analysis, and the doing of professional identities in learning to teach. Narrative Inquiry 17(2): 371–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/ni.17.2.11wat
West, L. (2013) Facebook sharing: a sociolinguistic analysis of computer-mediated Storytelling. Discourse, Context and Media 2(1): 1–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2012.12.002
Wetherell, M. (1998) Positioning and interpretative repertoires: conversation analysis and post-structuralism in dialogue. Discourse and Society 9(3): 387–412. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957926598009003005
Wetherell, M. and Edley, N. (1999) Negotiating hegemonic masculinity: imaginary positions and psycho-discursive practices. Feminism and Psychology 9(3): 335–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353599009003012
Williamson, M. (2005) The Lure of the Vampire: Gender, Fiction and Fandom from Bram Stoker to Buffy. London: Wallflower Press.
Zhao, S. (2006) The Internet and the transformation of the reality of everyday life: toward a new analytic stance in sociology. Sociological Inquiry 76(4): 458–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.2006.00166.x
Bamberg, M. (1997) Positioning between structure and performance. Journal of Narrative and Life History 7(1–4): 335–42.
Bamberg, M. (2004) Form and functions of ‘slut bashing’ in male identity constructions in 15-year-olds: ‘I know it may sound mean to say this, but we couldn’t really care less about her anyway’. Human Development 47(6): 331–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000081036
Bamberg, M. (2006) Stories: big or small: why do we care? Narrative Inquiry 16(1): 139–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/ni.16.1.18bam
Bamberg, M. (2010) Who am I? Narration and its contribution to self and identity. Theory and Psychology 21(1): 1–22.
Bamberg, M. and Georgakopoulou, A. (2008) Small stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysis. Text and Talk 28(3): 377–396. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/TEXT.2008.018
Black, R. W. (2008) Adolescents and Online Fan Fiction: New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies. New York: Peter Lang.
Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
Danet, B., Ruedenberg-Wright, L. and Rosenbaum-Tamari, Y. (1997) ‘Hmmm … where’s that smoke coming from?’ Writing, play and performance on Internet Relay Chat. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication 2(4). Retrieved on 15 April 2013 from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1997.tb00195.x/full.
Davies, B. and Harré, R. (1990) Positioning: the discursive production of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior 20: 43–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5914.1990.tb00174.x
Fish, S. (1993) Att tolka Variorumupplagan. In C. Entzenberger and C. Hansson (eds) Modern litteraturteori: Från rysk formalism till dekonstruktion Del 2 164–91. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Georgakopoulou, A. (2006) Small and large identities in narrative (inter)-action. In D. Schiffrin, M. Bamberg, and A. de Fina (ed.) Discourse and Identity 83–102. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Georgakopoulou, A. (2008) ‘On MSN with buff boys’: self- and other-identity claims in the context of small stories. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12(5): 597–626. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00384.x
Gray, L. (2008) A fangirl’s crush. Houston Chronicle (12 March). Retrieved on 26 May 2015 from www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/moms/5611220.html.
Gregson, K. S. (2005) ‘What if the lead character looks like me?’ Girl fans of shoujo anime and their websites. In S. Mazzarella (ed.) Girl Wide Web: Girls, the Internet, and the Negotiation of Identity 121–40. New York: Peter Lang.
Grisso, A. D., Ashley, D. and Weiss, D. (2005) What are gURLs talking about? Adolescent girls’ construction of sexual identity on gURL.com. In S. Mazzarella (ed.) Girl Wide Web: Girls, the Internet, and the Negotiation of Identity 31–49. New York: Peter Lang.
Gupta, S. (2009) Re-reading Harry Potter (2nd edn). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9780230279711
Harré, R., Moghaddam, F. M., Cairnie, T. P., Rothbart, D. and Sabat, S. R. (2009) Recent advances in positioning theory. Theory and Psychology 19(1): 5–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959354308101417
Heilman, E. (2003) Blue wizards and pink witches: representations of gender identity and power. In E. Heilman (ed.) Harry Potter’s World: Multidisciplinary Critical Perspectives 221–39. New York: Routledge.
Hellekson, K. and Busse, K. (ed.) (2006) Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Herring, S. (1999) Interactional coherence in CMC. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication 4(4). Retrieved on 16 April 2013 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1999.tb00106.x/full. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/hicss.1999.772674
Isaksson, M. and Lindgren Leavenworth, M. (2009) Queera lustar: fan fiction i vampyrmiljö. Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap 3(4): 23–37.
Isaksson, M. and Lindgren Leavenworth, M. (2011) Gazing, initiating, desiring: alternative constructions of agency and sex in ‘Twifics’. In M. Larsson and A. Steiner (ed.) Interdisciplinary Approaches to Twilight: Studies in Fiction, Media and a Contemporary Cultural Experience 127–42. Umeå: Nordic Academy Press.
Jenkins, H. (1992) Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. New York: Routledge.
Karlsson, M. (2011) ‘It was Emma’s army who bullied that girl’: a narrative perspective on bullying and identity making in three girls’ friendship groups. Narrative Inquiry 21(1): 24–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/ni.21.1.02kar
Karlsson, M. (2013) Emotional identification with teacher identities in student teachers’ narrative interaction. European Journal of Teacher Education 36(2): 133–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2012.686994
Kustritz, A. (2004) Slashing the romance narrative. Journal of American Culture 26(3): 371–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1542-734X.00098
Lindgren Leavenworth, M. and Isaksson, M. (2013) Fanged Fan Fiction: Variations on Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.
Mazzarella, S. (ed.) (2005) Girl Wide Web: Girls, the Internet, and the Negotiation of Identity. New York: Peter Lang.
McRobbie, A. (1991) Feminism and Youth Culture: from ‘Jackie’ to ‘Just Seventeen’. Basingstoke: Macmillan Education.
Ochs, E. and Capps, L. (2001) Living Narrative: Creating Lives in Everyday Storytelling. London: Harvard University Press.
Olin-Scheller, C. (2008) Trollkarl eller mugglare? Tolkningsgemenskaper inom ett nytt medielandskap. [Wizard of muggle? Interpretative communities within a new media landscape.] Didaktiskt Forum 5(2): 73–85.
Olin-Scheller, C. (2010) Literary prosumers: young people’s reading and writing in a new media landscape. Education Inquiry 1(1): 41–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/edui.v1i1.21931
Potter, J. and Wetherell, M. (1987) Discourse and Social Psychology: Beyond Attitudes and Behaviour. London: Sage.
Pugh, S. (2005) The Democratic Genre: Fan fiction in a Literary Context. Glasgow: Seren.
Pugh, T. and Wallace, D. L. (2006) Heteronormative heroism and queering the school story in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Children's Literature Association Quarterly 31(3): 260–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/chq.2006.0053
Robinson, L. (2007) The cyberself: the self-ing project goes online, symbolic interaction in the digital age. New Media and Society 9(1): 93–110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461444807072216
Salmon C. and Symons, D. (2004) Slash fiction and human mating psychology. Journal of Sex Research 41: 94–100. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224490409552217
Sarbin T. R. and Kitsuse, J. I. (1994) A prologue to constructing the social. In T. R. Sarbin and J. I. Kitsuse (ed.) Constructing the Social 1–17. London: Sage.
Sevick Bortree, D. (2005) Presentation of self on the web: an ethnographic study of teenage girls' weblogs. Education, Communication and Information 5(1): 25–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14636310500061102
Shariff (2008) Cyber-Bullying: Issues and Solutions for the School, the Classroom and the Home. Abingdon: Routledge.
Stern, S. (2002) Virtually speaking: girls’ self-disclosure on the WWW. Women’s Studies in Communication 25(2): 223–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2002.10162447
Stern, S. (2004) Expressions of identity online: prominent features and gender differences in adolescents’ World Wide Web home pages. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 48(2): 218–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4802_4
Stokoe, E. and Smithson, J. (2001) Making gender relevant: conversation analysis and gender categories in interaction. Discourse and Society 12(2): 217–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957926501012002005
Sundén, J. (2002) Cyberbodies: writing gender in digital self-presentations. In J. Fornäs, K. Klein, M. Ladendorf, J. Sundén and M. Sveningsson (ed.) Digital Borderlands: Cultural Studies of Identity and Interactivity on the Internet 79–111. New York: Peter Lang.
Sunderland, J. (2011) Language, Gender and Children’s Fiction. London: Continuum.
Sveningsson Elm, M. (2001) Creating a Sense of Community: Experiences from a Swedish Web Chat. Linköping Studies in Art and Science 233. Linköping: Linköping University.
Turkle, S. (1997) Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Touchstone.
Warner, M. (1993) Introduction. In M. Warner (ed.) Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory vii–xxxi. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Watson, C. (2007) Small stories, positioning analysis, and the doing of professional identities in learning to teach. Narrative Inquiry 17(2): 371–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/ni.17.2.11wat
West, L. (2013) Facebook sharing: a sociolinguistic analysis of computer-mediated Storytelling. Discourse, Context and Media 2(1): 1–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2012.12.002
Wetherell, M. (1998) Positioning and interpretative repertoires: conversation analysis and post-structuralism in dialogue. Discourse and Society 9(3): 387–412. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957926598009003005
Wetherell, M. and Edley, N. (1999) Negotiating hegemonic masculinity: imaginary positions and psycho-discursive practices. Feminism and Psychology 9(3): 335–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353599009003012
Williamson, M. (2005) The Lure of the Vampire: Gender, Fiction and Fandom from Bram Stoker to Buffy. London: Wallflower Press.
Zhao, S. (2006) The Internet and the transformation of the reality of everyday life: toward a new analytic stance in sociology. Sociological Inquiry 76(4): 458–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.2006.00166.x
Published
2015-08-05
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Karlsson, M., & Olin-Scheller, C. (2015). "Let’s Party!": Harry Potter fan fiction sites as social settings for narrative gender constructions. Gender and Language, 9(2), 167–188. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v9i2.17330
