Project Introduction

Have you ever read a book and loved it, cherished every part of it so much that there is not a single critique you would deliver, but then hopped on over to social media to see what other people who have read the book think, only to find that the same book that you adored is being ripped apart in the comments for “reading like fan fiction.” If you are a reader of popular culture genres like horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and – especially – romance, chances are that the above scenario is something you have experienced. The crushing disappointment that you feel when you encounter such the towards the book that you were so excited about is one of the two chief motivations for my project. As someone who has all the main social media platforms and is immersed within the book subcommunities – like BookTok and Bookstagram – of those same platforms, I have had numerous encounters with the unique type of sadness, one that is felt deep in the recesses of your chest, that arises when you encounter this type of mass and concentrated hate towards a novel that you love.

Reading is my passion; it is not just about the narrative contained within the pages of the novel for me, in fact, oftentimes, I enjoy what comes after finishing the novel more than the story itself. For me, and I am sure, for those of you who are interacting with this project, once I finish a novel that I loved, I have an intense desire to stay immersed within the universe, to stay connected to these characters and their stories, and to find a way to satiate my need to keep reading about them despite the series being finished. Sometimes, the novel itself is just not enough for me, and that is because before I was a reader, I was a fan. Being a fan is the second motivation behind the creation of this project because, like many of you, the tendency of people who are part of the book subcommunities on various social media platforms to use fan fiction to lessen a book’s value and imply that it is of inferior caliber has bothered me for quite some time. But while I am a fan and a reader, I am also a student, and this project is an amalgamation of three primary facets of my identity, and a way for me to create scholarly and academic content on a field that both interests me and deserves critical attention.

Pairing my training as an English student with my passions for reading and fandom is what led to the creation of the research question for this project. This project is multifaceted; it is an arduous defense of the academic and aesthetic value within fan fiction and fan studies, but it is also an attempt to bridge the vast divide between those within the academy and those outside of it. My time as an English student and the ideas, theories, and discussions within academic discourse have been essential towards the development of my personal beliefs and ideologies.

Through my studies, I have been exposed to a variety of perspective on various social, political, and economic issues that I may not have ever come across if I were not a student. But what good are these ideas if they are continuously being circulated amongst those already within academia with no effort being made to extend the conversation beyond the academic bubble? In order for these ideologies to transition from ideology to practice, they need to reach as many people as possible, not just those in academia. This line of thinking led me to the research questions that this project interrogates: Does denigrating fan fiction discourse on social media effect the scholarly attention given to fan fiction and fan studies? Does this discourse also bleed into the professorial hiring process and effect the composition of English departments in universities?