Afiliação e Fandom: construção colaborativa de conhecimento sobre práticas de leitura e escrita de fanfics em uma comunidade on-line na plataforma Archive Of Our Own

Abstract

This research started with the author's initial observation and concern when searching for authentic knowledge about fanfiction in academic texts. The knowledge found after general Google searches about structure, genres, hashtags, categories, among other aspects of fanfics is mostly written by fans – fanfic readers or writers – in specific community forums, social media publication platforms. Fans are actively producing and systematizing content, however, in materials from the academic community, we consider that this content does not necessarily present the experience in a fanfic reading and writing community in an authentic way, with terms and definitions used by the participants of these communities. By reason of this, the present work proposes to identify and comprehend authentic characteristics of fanfictions as multimodal discursive genres in order to reflect on these characteristics in a collaborative way with community participants –fanfic readers and writers. The theme unfolds with the construction of a safe and comfortable space so that these participants, specifically from the Archive Of Our Own (AO3) publishing platform, could express their ideas and knowledge in the same way they feel comfortable in their online spaces, so that we could organize this practice of reading and writing within an online community enough to overcome barriers and take it outside the community without compromising the authenticity of the practice and the genre. Therefore, we propose to answer the following research questions: a) How do fanfic readers and writers understand the characteristics of fanfics based on their participation in reading and writing communities of this genre?, and b ) What is the relevance of these authors and readers discourse for the authentic work with the genre? To accomplish this, the following objectives were established: a) collaboratively build authentic knowledge about fanfic; b) understand the most relevant characteristics of fanfics and the circulation of the genre from the perspective of participants in the reading and writing community; and c) analyze the relevance of understanding fanfic reading and writing practices as multimodal literacy practices and digital multiliteracies. To theoretically substantiate this work, concepts such as affiliation (BLACK, 2005), affinity groups (GEE, 2004), participatory culture (JENKINS, 2009) and fandom (MIRANDA, 2009) were considered, as well as concepts of new literacies and digital multiliteracies (ROJO, 2012; LANKSHEAR, KNOBEL, 2007), in order to understand the practices of reading and writing fanfic carried out in affinity groups and fandom communities. Furthermore, to defining and think about fanfiction, we continue with works by Kersch and Dornelles (2021), and e Bahoric e Swaggerty (2015). The 20 research collaborators answered an online form consisting of 35 questions that covered the topics mentioned above.

The results, extensive and satisfactory, helped to understand fandom communities, as well as their relevance for describing fanfiction reading, writing and publishing as social practices developed in specific contexts. Moreover, it was possible to understand how these participants describe fanfic in its themes, structure and social relevance.