Iterations and Evolutions

Abstract

Intertext and paratext are central to the creation of fantexts and fan communities. It is essential therefore to explore how intertext and paratext affect the production and consumption of fanfiction, which involves the communication of the reader and author. In this chapter, the authors examine one fanfiction platform as a case study using the Fifty Shades of Grey enterprise as a contextual pivot point in order to understand the impact of digital paratext and intertext as tools constructing the medium of fanfiction. Using computer-mediated discourse analysis, the authors explore textual elements of three fanfiction titles, focusing on the paratext, the reader and author interactions, and the intertext, here the relation of the fanfictions to Fifty Shades of Grey and other texts, including those published on the same fanfiction forum (Fanfiction.net). Findings indicate that fanfiction not only includes paratextual elements for author-reader communication, but also that paratext is integral to the creation of fanfiction. As fanfictions evolve, they themselves become intertextual root-texts from which new fanfiction develops.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 8 citations exist upstream.