In December of 2017 I was in the library of the high school where I teach English with one of my classes. We were working on podcasts illustrating students' various perspectives on a choice novel. I was attempting to build a digital-literacies infused opportunity for my students. They engaged in reading a traditional novel, but they collaborated on a media project (the podcast) that would be shared to an authentic audience, made available to the public on iTunes. While they were working, several students had a CNN livestream on their phones, waiting to hear how the FCC would vote regarding net neutrality. When the vote was cast repealing internet protections, my students and I commiserated. However, after a trying year, I had little in the way of hope or comfort to give them. I had recently "unplugged" myself from the constant stream of anxiety known as my newsfeed, my ability to rebound from story after story, comment after comment of bad news having worn down. My students, however, were more resilient and began searching through Tumblr (circumventing the school's block on that site) to find gifs and memes expressing their thoughts on the issue among other political viewpoints. They made me laugh, despite the depth of all of our despair at that moment, with their wit and understanding of both complex political issues and the intricate language of Tumblr culture. And despite the podcast task I had laid out for them, my students more readily engaged with another complex text, a government meeting, and communicated about it in forms other than that I had planned for them.
I have experienced many moments like this throughout my teaching career, and it is these moments I return to when I hear colleagues and popular media critics complain about the short attention spans, lack of communication skills, and general "dumbing down" of the next generation because of technology (Bauerlein, 2008; Carr, 2014). It is true my students exhibited some of these habits my colleagues and other critics allude to. They were distracted, engaging in some ineffective multitasking, and communicating in images and slang rather than fully-formed sentences. However, these same students were among my most high-achieving, capable of crafting college-level essays at the age of fifteen.
Beyond that, what they were doing here required more than an advanced academic understanding of government and the history of the internet. Their ways of communicating their emotions about this with me required an ability to play with those thoughts by translating them into completely different media, relying on a shared cultural understanding that was not bound in a physical region, but rather cyberspace. My students were doing more than just using a platform, or, as some colleagues might say, being used by it.
While my students will engage in activities I give them, I am always interested in the complex literacy practices they choose for themselves. My interests in the ways my students communicate online – how that fuels their academic performance, and how educators, including myself, have failed to tap into these literacy practices – have fueled my research interests.
Throughout this research process, like my students, I found the medium laid out before me insufficient to communicate my thoughts. My students needed to express their ideas about net neutrality through remixed images and text, finding that traditional modes of communication did not do justice to the scattered connections they made between their emotions and their culture. I, too, found communicating my ideas about this research difficult in the limited, linear format of a traditional dissertation. In reading several dissertations as models, this format simply did not have the functionality that I needed to express the intricate map of connections in my mind. My thoughts held dozens of ideas about this project at the same time, and deciding which element to describe first or how to describe one element without fully describing another was impossible for me to decipher.
A route to a fully-formed dissertation took root in my mind when I discovered what Deleuze and Guattari (1987) call a rhizome - a whole, not segmented or linear, but with “lines of flight” that could be read in any order following any winding path through the ideas. This format led me to the idea of a website with hyperlinks allowing for not a single, linear reading, but rather allowing for an infinite number of readings in which one could delve into various topics at exactly the moment it was needed, offered a more organic way to connect the ideas of this research. As discussed in the following chapters, both the theoretical framework for this study (New Materialism) as well as the topic (New Literacies) call for new ways to approach information that resist linearity and formal structure in order to produce a more accurate, authentic, and complex portrait of communicated ideas. For this reason, the website version of this dissertation (found at goo.gl/6vsSbk) is a more accurate representation of the ideas of this study.
Once I created the website, creating a traditional dissertation became easier in that I could think of it as representing one possible route through the information rather than a definitive one. In reading this one route, know that each concept in this study is artificially isolated by the format of a sectioned dissertation and may not fully come together until an entire chapter or more is digested. The format of a linear paper outlines ideas as what Deleuze and Guattari (1987) called a tracing, following one line until it comes together as a whole, rather than a map, depicting the entirety of the concept with room for filling in more detail. All of the ideas are so interconnected that beginning with one will necessarily leave gaps in understanding until another is also explained. Once all the ideas come together as a whole, a more accurate representation will be created.
New Literacies are an integral part of civic participation in modern society (Draper & Wimmer, 2015; New London Group, 1996). The New London Group (1996) spoke to how cultural changes created a shift in literacy practices saying, “whereas the old Fordist organization depended upon clear, precise, and formal systems of command, such as written memos and the supervisor’s orders, effective teamwork depends to a much greater extent on informal, oral, and interpersonal discourse. This informality also translated into hybrid and interpersonally sensitive informal written forms, such as electronic mail” (p.66). In this way, New Literacies encompasses more than just communication mediated by technology. Rather, New Literacies is a new “ethos” of communication (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006). Understanding this type of communication is central to navigating the modern world. This is evidenced by many teachers’ organizations, including the National Council of Teachers of English’s ELATE Commission (2018) releasing statements on navigating New Literacies. The ELATE Commission articulated beliefs about integrating technology into the English classroom including outlining not only how teachers can accomplish technology integration but also beliefs about its importance:
There are multiple ways people communicate in a variety of social contexts. What’s more, the way people communicate increasingly necessitates networked, technological mediation. To that end, relying exclusively on traditional definitions of literacy unnecessarily limits the ways students can communicate and the ways educators can imagine curriculum and pedagogy. (n.p.)
In this way and through these sources we see the importance of fully understanding New Literacies and ensuring the same level of understanding for adolescents.
While adolescents engage in these types of literacy practices at home, research shows they need more. For some students, school is the main point of access to technology and the new types of communication it affords as access at home is limited (Rueda, 2013). Beyond this, even students with access can benefit from direct instruction, as home use of technology such as for social purposes “are not those that might further academic goals or serve to reduce academic inequities” (Rueda, 2013, p.1255). Beyond this, even school access to technology can fail to take into account New Literacies. The ELATE Commission (2018) recognized this in their position statement “Beliefs for Integrating Technology into the English Language Arts Classroom”:
Some technologies that enable systems like “credit recovery courses” and remedial literacy software — which are frequently used more heavily in “struggling” schools that serve students who are poor and/or of color — can often reduce pedagogy to the mere coverage of shallow content and completion of basic assessments, rather than providing robust innovation for students to creatively represent their learning. (n.p.)
Rueda (2013) notes a similar inequity, stating how the rich New Literacies experiences that could be beneficial for students are less often offered to underachieving students (p.1256). As a way to assist teachers in instructing in New Literacies in authentic ways, the New London Group (1996) calls for a “metalanguage” that should be used to instruct in the process of acquiring the structure of different types of literacies so that students can learn to navigate any literacy situation (p.77). This can help students be successful when engaging the multiple literacies they encounter at home, in the world, and even traditional literacies still needed for school. Decades later, this type of multiliteracies approach is still called for in the ELATE Commission’s (2018) position paper:
English and literacy researchers should:
· study literacies as more than general reading and writing abilities and move toward an understanding of teaching and learning within expanded frames of literacies and literacy practices (e.g., new literacies, multiliteracies, and socially situated literacies).
· question how technologies shape and mediate literacy practices in different scenes and spaces for activating user agency and making change.This portion of the position paper recognizes the ineffective use of technology that often occurs I classrooms, masking the failure to promote and educate adolescents in New Literacies. (n.p.)
For years, educators and researchers have called for incorporating a broad understanding of New Literacies into literacy education.
Despite these calls, evidence suggests that schools are not incorporating new literacies into the classroom. Many researchers remark on the stark contrast between students' at-home literacy practices and school literacy practices (Black, 2007; Black, 2008; Black, 2009c; Korobkova & Black, 2014; Lammers & Marsh, 2015; Thomas, 2006). Bialostok (2014) stated that “American classrooms remain book-centric. Multiple literacies represent a fundamental paradigm shift in the ways we understand and enact literacy and learning, but most teachers continue to respond to literacy instruction in ways that inadequately address the complexities of twenty-first century literacy needs” (p.501). Research shows that teachers are either unknowledgeable about technology (Kalonde & Mousa, 2016), feel constrained by top-down mandates (Kalonde & Mousa, 2016), or only use technology to disseminate information rather than have students create with it (Rueda, 2013).
Beyond this, teacher positionality and attitudes may be a factor in teachers’ willingness to engage in new literacy practices (Lubke, 2013). In fact, many teachers may see technology as harmful to student literacy. In the wake of technology use such as texting, teachers and other adults often report negative literacy expectations of students (Carringtone, 2005; Wray, 2015). Research shows that valuing student literacy practices can lead to better educational outcomes (Hull & Rose, 1990; Lee, 2001). However, technology use has created deficit-model views for many teachers, making it unlikely for them to incorporate technology-based communication in their classrooms, and the dichotomy between home and school literacies make many students feel that the two are unconnected and one or the other is irrelevant (Black, 2007; Korobkova & Black, 2014; Thomas, 2006).
Teachers need a bridge between traditional and New Literacies and insight into student literacy practices in order to value them and bring them into the classroom space. Many attempts at connecting with “digital natives” (Prensky, 2001) fall short, making use of the technology tools but not the “ethos” of New Literacy practices that are truly essential (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006). To do this right, teachers need to know more than just what tools students are using online. They need to understand the complex ways adolescents intra-act (Barad, 2003) with certain tools, platforms, media, and each other as well as what fuels this engagement. While research into student literacies may have focused on adolescent motivation (Beach & Ward, 2013; Cantrell et al., 2017; Maldonado, 2012; Scheffel, 2016), digital tools and spaces (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006), or, to a lesser extent, the types of texts with which students engage (Adams & Bushman, 2006; Ivey & Johnston, 2013; Wilhelm & Smith, 2014), the complexities of interactions among these and other elements must be understood in order to be of use in the classroom.
The purpose of this study is to deepen the understanding of adolescent, at-home, new and digital literacy practices in order to help bridge the gap between 21st-century, New Literacies needs and the 21st-century classroom. In order to accomplish this, I focus in on one new literacy practice that shows promise as a bridge between traditional and New Literacies, online fanfiction (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006). However, instead of taking an essentialist stance in analyzing what about fanfiction practices are instructionally valuable or engaging and encouraging teachers to transplant these features into their classroom out of context, I instead take a New Materialist approach, focusing on three main aspects of online fanfiction – 1) the original text, 2) the adolescent reader/writer, and 3) the online fanfiction platform – and how these elements both interact with each other and change each other to create a new whole, the unique literacy practice of the online fanfiction community. In the following sections, I unpack some of the prominent elements of the study.
Forging an understanding of a literacy practice that blends traditional and New Literacies through a New Materialist lens will help form a clearer picture of the practice in context. Understanding the complexities of intra-actions that become the literacy practice will help educators make use of this practice with more fidelity, not merely transplant a decontextualized practice into their classroom expecting similar results. With this frame comes the central research question of the study:
In this study I examine the intra-actions among fanfiction writers/readers, a fanfiction space, and a young-adult source text through interviewing fanfiction writers about their experiences with fanfiction and the particular series they write about as well as examining their fanfiction about the series. The fanfiction space is the subsection of the site fanfiction.net devoted to stories, communities, and forums on the Throne of Glass series, chosen for its high number of fanfiction pieces. This series is an ongoing young adult fantasy series featuring a female protagonist, and has the highest number of fanfiction pieces written about it of any young-adult text that does not also have a graphic novel or film version. This study examines how this particular series connects with these adolescents in ways that entangle to create the literacy experience of reading and writing fanfiction about young-adult literature.
Throne of Glass series. As briefly described earlier, the Throne of Glass series is an ongoing young adult fantasy series. At the time of this study, seven of the eight books in the series had been published including five books in the chronological series, one prequel collection of short stories, and one companion novel. The protagonist of the series is Celaena Sardothien, a trained assassin who has been forced into slavery. After a year of brutality, she is plucked from the slave mines to compete to be the champion of the evil king who conquered her homeland. As the series progresses, Celaena uncovers her past, her true identity, and the way to rid the world of an evil greater than the conquering king. With each book the stakes are raised and Celaena and her allies grow.
The fanfiction community surrounding this series was chosen for several reasons. Because of this study’s interest in how young adult literature in particular intra-acts with young adults in literacy practices, I decided to choose a fanfiction community centered around a book or book series with both a high number of fanfictions written about it and no film version that could be the source of the fanfictions, ensuring that the text itself inspired the writing. The two young adult book series with the most stories were The Lunar Chronicles and Throne of Glass. While I was familiar with and enjoyed both series, The Lunar Chronicles had a few disadvantages. For one, this series is based upon fairy tales, complicating the source material. Additionally, a spin-off graphic novel series is underway for the Lunar Chronicles, adding in a visual element. For the purposes of this study, I wanted a more traditional young adult series.
Another interesting element to this young adult novel is the connection that this series and its author have to the other two materials in this study. The author of the Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas, began writing the series at the age of sixteen (Maas, 2018). In this way these books, at least the earliest ones, were written by an adolescent. This differs from most books marketed to teens which are written by adults. Additionally, Maas began her writing career by writing fanfiction (Maas, 2016). The findings of this study address the ways in which this particular book series intra-acts with the other materials in this study to create a literacy event, what, in the text itself, is particularly suited to this intra-action, including any connections these elements of the author’s background contribute to this text’s role in the assemblage.
Fanfiction. The next material under study is the particular online fanfiction space. For this study I examine works and reviews found on fanfiction.net, a site commonly used in fanfiction studies (Black, 2005; Lammers, 2016; Land, 2010). As of this moment, the Throne of Glass series currently has 519 separate fanfiction pieces posted to this site (Fanfiction.net, 2018). As explained before, this is the second highest number of fanfiction pieces for a single young adult book series that does not also have a film version, the highest being The Lunar Chronicles.
These 519 stories are written by various authors, are various lengths from a few hundred words to several chapters, and have several reviews on each post. While browsing through these 519 stores, one can filter in many ways. One can sort by publication date or number of reviews, favorites, and followers for each story, the characters that the story features, content rating (eg. M for mature), and even which “pairing” or romantic relationship the story features (Fanfiction.net, 2018). This sort screen can be found in Appendix A. Of importance to this study is not only the content of these stories but the functionality of the online fanfiction space. How does the ability to group fanfiction stories by book series and then further filter by various categories affect the experience? How does the ability to review and favorite stories or follow authors affect the experience? Why and how does this particular medium draw in and intra-act with young adult literature and adolescents in unique ways? An analysis of how the stories and functionality of the site intra-acts with the other materials in this study seeks to answer those questions.
Adolescent identity. The final material in these case studies is adolescent fanfiction writers, particularly those who have written stories about the Throne of Glass series. Because fanfiction writing is often personal and, for many adolescents, a space separate and safe from the adult world (Black, 2007; Korobkova & Black, 2014; Thomas, 2006) this study focuses adolescents who are eighteen to twenty-five years old. This allows them to participate in the study without informing their parents of their fanfiction writing, protecting them from unnecessary emotional or psychological stress. While eighteen to twenty-five-year-olds fall out of traditional definitions of adolescents as teenagers under eighteen, the distinction is an arbitrary one that is culturally and legal created. It does not represent any biological distinction. Brain development researchers define adolescence as a much broader category extending into the mid-twenties (Arain et al., 2013). The world of young adult literature is also growing to recognize that those aged eighteen to mid-twenties are still young adults with the advent of a new marketing category of “new adult” books (Cataldi, 2015). Because of this, the participants in this study are both over the age of consent, but also still adolescents in many ways. All of the participants in this study began writing fanfiction in their early teen years or before and have continued this practice into their young adulthood. Under study here is how these participants’ identities intra-act with the online fanfiction and the Throne of Glass series. While little demographic or biographic information about each adolescents’ identity was collected for privacy, here the way in which adolescent identity interacts with fanfiction and the Throne of Glass series is gleaned from what the adolescents themselves say about their connections and interactions with these two materials.
For this collective case study I used multiple sources of data to analyze the materials of this study. The following is a description of the process of data collection.
Because each separate case was a different assemblage among an adolescent, fanfiction, and the Throne of Glass series, recruiting adolescents engaged in this particular entanglement was essential. As a longtime member of the fanfiction.net site with access to the site’s private messaging feature as every member of the site has, once I received approval for my study, I went to the subpage of fanfiction.net containing all of the Throne of Glass fanfiction stories. I started messaging each author beginning with the most recent. This strategy seemed to make the most sense as these authors would be the most likely to still be viewing the site and the most likely to remember their motivations for writing the recently published fanfiction. I started with the first three pages, containing sixty-one different authors. I then waited two days to allow these fanfiction authors to respond before messaging the next three pages of authors. I repeated this process until I had messaged all 279 authors of Throne of Glass fanfiction on fanfiction.net. Because of fanfiction.net’s private message policy which does not allow outside links to be sent via private message, the recruitment message (Appendix B) contained a link to my fanfiction.net profile. From there, participants were directed to the initial questionnaire (Appendix C).
Those who agreed to participate were directed to an online questionnaire form (Appendix C) beginning with a statement of informed consent. This questionnaire contained a series of open-ended questions so as to be set up more like a structured online interview rather than a limited survey. Flick (2014) addressed the efficacy of an online interview saying that online interviews may be best “if the research issue has much to do with internet usage or if the target group is best to be found in online contexts” (p.234). Flick (2014) also indicated that an online interview may make sense for people who feel more comfortable being given time to answer questions rather than answering spontaneously. For my participants who were being asked about online activities in which they participate mostly anonymously, this method made the most sense to both keep the data as anonymous as possible and ensure my participants were comfortable and willing to participate. Flick (2014) does suggest that sending asynchronous questions all at once may be more like a survey than an interview and suggests sending some questions, waiting for a response, than sending further questions more closely matches the interview style. However, since my questions were closely related and thinking about the first set might help inform responses on the next set, it made sense to send all of the preliminary questions at once on a convenient form. Personalized follow-up questions were then sent later, as outlined in a later section.
In the original questionnaire, participants answered open-ended questions about their intra-actions with both the Throne of Glass series and fanfiction. For example, “is there anything about the Throne of Glass series that lends itself to fanfiction?” and “what parts of Throne of Glass do you like to write about?” were included in the questionnaire. Participants were also asked permission to use their public fanfiction in the study and if they were willing to participate in any follow-up discussions. The questionnaire was set to collect twenty-five responses from those in the appropriate age group who gave consent. Nineteen participants meeting these criteria filled out the questionnaire. Two of these nineteen gave limited responses, skipping questions or providing only a few phrases for answers. This left seventeen usable responses to be analyzed.
Several fanfiction studies have examined the fanfiction itself to study the literacy practices within the community (Black, 2005; Lammers & Marsh, 2015; Roozen, 2009). After obtaining permission from the seventeen participants through the questionnaire, I examined all of their Throne of Glass fanfiction stories as well as all reviews associated with the stories. While the reviews were not created by participants in the study, the public nature of these comments allow them to be used for research as texts (McKee & Porter, 2009; Paulus, Lester, & Dempster, 2014).
After analyzing both the questionnaire responses and each respondent’s fanfiction, I sent follow-up questions for clarification. For example, after noticing one participant mention how she likes to write about female friendships, I asked the following question “looking at the list of other fanfictions you have written as well as what you said about this Throne of Glass series, it does seem you have a propensity to write about female friendships. Why is that a central concept for you? Does this connect to your life in any way?”.
I began analysis with typological analysis, forming typologies based on the three sets of intra-actions I was analyzing, book-adolescent, fanfiction-adolescent, and fanfiction-book. For example, the following excerpt from the participant Rhymechime’s response was coded as book-adolescent:
I do feel a connection to multiple characters in Throne of Glass. Elide has been one of my favorite characters from the beginning. She has gone through so much but is one of the strongest characters in the story. She doesn't let her disability hinder any portion of her life and she fights for what she believes in. As someone with a chronic illness, this really speaks to me. I have tried to live my life to the fullest and even though I have setbacks I see through Elide that it is possible to succeed and fight.
In this Rhymechime clearly speaks to how the Throne of Glass series connects to her personally. Connections like these between materials formed the first pass of coding for both the responses to the questionnaire and the fanfiction of each respondent. After this first pass, follow-up questions were sent out to the seventeen respondents. Once they were returned, the follow-up responses were also coded using the three intra-actions from the aforementioned typography. NVIVO was used to track all coding. Fifteen of the seventeen initial respondents also responded to the follow-up questions.
After all responses and follow-up responses were recorded and coded, I wrote up a case description for each of the fifteen full responses. These case descriptions were sent to each respective respondent for member checking. Ten participants responded to the member-checking, affirming the accuracy of the description. Of these ten, I chose six to highlight in this multiple case study based on their full and unique responses. The four excluded exemplified many of the same characteristics of the six chosen cases without much variation. For instance, the four excluded showed the same interest in character and review culture as the other six, but without strong descriptions of preference for either in their experience in fanfiction. Therefore, the six chosen served to highlight different approaches, motivations, and interests in fanfiction and the text.
As Hatch (2002) stated, “that typological analysis starts with a deductive step does not preclude the researcher’s being aware that other important categories are likely to be in the data or prevent the researcher from searching for them. Some unexpected patterns, relationships, or themes will jump out of the data as they are read and reread by the researcher” (p. 161). For this reason, while analysis began with typological analysis, inductive analysis (Hatch, 2002) was used to analyze data within the framework typographies. This inductive coding was done by breaking each typological code down into more detailed codes. For instance, for the typological code book-adolescent, some thematic codes underneath were connection with character or connection with fantasy genre. After this second pass of coding all codes were analyzed and combined or refined. For instance, the original code “character” was split into “connection with character” and “engaged with character” to differentiate between characters the adolescents enjoyed versus characters the adolescents felt reflected them in some way. Additionally, the original codes “reading as a writer” and “style” were combined into “engaged with style.” These splits or combinations were made to reflect the amount of data in each code. If only one piece of data was coded as “reading as a writer” but several more were coded as “engaged with style,” it made sense for “engaged with style” to subsume “reading as a writer.” The final set of codes can be found in Appendix D. When this list was finalized, the data was coded a third time using these codes.
Smythe et al. (2017) stated that in engaging in New Materialist studies we “rather than claiming accurate reflection of the world, we might more helpfully produce stories that invite readers or listeners to learn from them” (p.53). This goes back to Deleuze and Guattari’s (1980) call for “a map and not a tracing” (p.12). A New Materialist study seeks to provide information on the complexity of intra-actions in an assemblage, not pin down or define phenomena or objects. Smythe et al. (2017) spoke to the strengths of this approach for education:
This is a perspective that does not promise clarity, universality or finality about these relationships; however, it may be able to deal more effectively with the complexity of events in education settings that we have heretofore not been able to pay attention to. We are interested in understanding this complexity not because we are pursuing a more exact or faithful or detailed description of educational phenomena, but because it helps us question assumptions about how we conceive of learning and teaching, what causes learning, who is doing the learning (or teaching) and how certain ways of learning and objects of learning are valued more than others. (p. 22)
With this is mind, the study does not provide a definitive image of the relationships among adolescents, young adult literature, and fanfiction that can be generalizable to a larger context. Rather, it provides information on the specific assemblage described among these specific adolescents, this book, and this fanfiction space.
Additionally, this study did not take in all factors material to the literacy experience such as type of computer access or economic background of the participants. As discussed previously, because New Materialism seeks to take all materials into account, bounding a study can be difficult. While the material factors of economics are certainly relevant, interactions with the physical technology could not be observed as it takes place in a physical space and not the digital fanfiction space that is under study. Further studies should be done to incorporate the physicality of technology into this assemblage to create an even more robust map of the literary experience and more fully show the possibilities and limitations of recreating these experiences in the classroom.
As delineated in the methodology section, I began analysis with typological analysis, forming typologies based on the three sets of intra-actions I was analyzing, book-adolescent, fanfiction-adolescent, and fanfiction-book. After creating the case descriptions and member checking them, I completed a second round of inductive coding by breaking each typological code down into more detailed codes. Finally, all codes were refined into a final set of codes, the cases were paired down, and the data for these cases were analyzed again with the final set of codes. What follows is a description of themes across cases from the final set of codes. This analysis focuses primarily on what the cases had in common, but it will also highlight important differences that emerged when relevant. It should be noted that, in a study examining the connections and intra-actions among materials, separating out specific connections proves instructive, but also limiting. Each theme presented here is interconnected to the other themes. While this chapter focuses on presenting each theme separately as findings, the implications chapter will discuss the interconnectedness more fully. Additionally, I do include in some sections “lines of flight,” places where obvious connections to other themes emerge (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987). For each theme in which I include a line of flight, I indicate a major connection with another theme later in the findings that will be elaborated on more fully. This allows for outlining some of the connections among themes while maintaining a linear organization. This highlights the fact that, from a New Materialist perspective, none of the findings are isolated, but, rather, they must all be taken together in the fullness of the context. Figure 1 at the end of this chapter provides a final visual of the connections among all of the themes.
Each of the six participants under study described their relationship with the Throne of Glass series. For this intra-action, I make a distinction between two types of intra-actions, connection and engagement. With this distinction I intend to separate the times when the adolescents indicate a part of the book reflects their own personal experiences, which I label connection, and times when the adolescents are engaged with parts of the book but not because it reflected their personal experience. This came to be an important distinction as the adolescents engaged with the book both for its similarities and its differences from their own lives. They described personal connections with the author, characters, or a social connection that ignited an interest in the series. With these connections the participants felt that some aspect of the book related to their experience or personality. The participants also described engaged reading, whether it was the plot, style, fantasy elements, progressive themes, or characters that kept them engaged, even when the book did not reflect their own experience.
Line of flight. While we know that personally meaningful and engaged reading is extremely important in building literacy (Beach & Ward, 2013; Cantrell et al., 2017; De Naeghel et al., 2012; Gambrell & Morrow, 1996; Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000; McCombs, 1996; Oldfather, 1996), interestingly, not all participants were particularly connected or engaged with the text itself, but rather read and wrote about Throne of Glass for reasons more connected to the purposes of fanfiction than for being a fan. WritingLover was the only participant to express an indifferent attitude to the series, stating that her real interest in it was fueled by requests she received to write fanfiction for the series. This will be explored further in the adolescent-fanfiction section.
Kirkland (2011) spoke about the importance of adolescents connecting to a book in order to construct their own identities from the literature. Both Ivey and Johnston (2013) and Wilhelm and Smith (2014) noted how young adult literature helped adolescents with this construction of identity. It is unsurprising then that five of the six participants in this study noted their personal connection with various characters in Throne of Glass. Rhymechime, Quietsteps, and Chrisisdestruction described in particular how characters in the book connected with his or her own life. Rhymechime noted two connections. For one, as a woman, she prefers books with strong female leads as is the case in Throne of Glass. More specifically, Rhymechime connects with the character Elide:
Elide has been one of my favorite characters from the beginning. She has gone through so much but is one of the strongest characters in the story. She doesn't let her disability hinder any portion of her life and she fights for what she believes in. As someone with a chronic illness, this really speaks to me. I have tried to live my life to the fullest and even though I have setbacks I see through Elide that it is possible to succeed and fight.
Not only does Rhymechime connect with Elide as a strong woman, but she also appreciates the connection she has to the character as someone with a physical condition that can both cope and thrive.
Similarly to Rhymechime, Quietsteps enjoys the strong female characters in Throne of Glass, particularly how they are written to have strong friendships:
I went to an all-girls school until I was 16, so I've always had a very close knit group of female friends around me, giving me plenty of experience to draw from. They've been there, unfaltering, through difficult times in my life where my family haven't been, which has really given me an appreciation for friendships between girls and how strong they can be … Outside of YA it can be so hard to find media with well written female characters who have story arcs other than just romantic relationships, so I'm always drawn to series with the opportunity to read female friendships.
Quietsteps finds that Throne of Glass has multiple well-developed female characters that are allowed to interact and form bonds in ways many novels and series do not. This connection to her own experience draws her to the series.
Chrisisdestruction also connects with the characters in this series. He describes this connection saying, “personally, I can relate to a couple of characters in the story. But if I had to choose one character then that would have to be Chaol. The reason being that he starts out as just a normal guard that has had a troubled past, but slowly is turned into something he doesn't want to be by force.” What Chrisisdestruction seems to connect to here is the feeling of being out of control. When speaking about fanfiction, Chrisisdestruction often cites the control an author has over a story as one of the main benefits. For himself he says, “fanfiction is an outlet that I don't have sometimes. Something that I can vent to and have control over.” Chrisisdestruction relates to the character Chaol, whose sense of order is disrupted in a way he cannot control.
TheBookWorm1718 feels a different kind of connection to the characters. Instead of going through similar experiences, TheBookWordm1718 feels an emotional connection to the characters. She says, “I felt such grief at the end of EoS [Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass #5)] because it felt as if everything had gone right then just fell apart.” In talking about writing about this grief in her fanfiction, she writes, “grief and sorrow are two feelings that I feel like I can write about the easiest. I can connect to them. I feel like other people can relate well to them too. I try to force emotion into every word, so other readers can feel how those like Aelin and Rowan were feeling the moment they were separated.” Here, TheBookWorm1718 shows her connection to the characters through the strong emotion of grief – such a strong connection that she felt the need to write about it to connect to others.
Connections with the author of the series, Sara J. Maas, were noted, but were not of high importance to the participants of this study. As a fan, Quietsteps enjoys following Sarah J. Maas on social media, but this was not the original draw for her to the series:
I follow her Instagram and Twitter accounts so I know a reasonable amount about her as an author. But I didn't know of her until after I'd read the first two books so it wasn't anything particular about her that drew me to the series, though I do prefer to read fantasy books by female authors since I tend to find the female characters to be better written.
For Quietsteps, following an author is not necessarily a prerequisite for enjoying a series, but rather a way to stay connected once the book has already drawn her in with well-written characters. This desire for connection is reflected in Rhymechime’s engagement with the author:
I do follow Sarah J. Maas on Instagram and Facebook. I have always been someone to follow author's because I love to hear about their new works, and even about their lives. Sarah is such a wonderful woman who cares deeply for her fans and for her books. She does so many events for fans. Author's that don't engage with their fans make it hard to enjoy series sometimes.
Rhymechime’s enjoyment of the series is at least in part connected to her ability to connect with the author on social media. Having an author that works to communicate with fans is part of the process of engaging with the work for this fanfiction writer.
Many researchers have noted the importance of social interaction centered around literacy as a way to gain literacy achievement and as a sign of engagement (Beach & Ward, 2013; Cantrell et al., 2017; Gambrell & Morrow, 1996; Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000; Ivey, 2014; Oldfather, 1996; Scheffel, 2016). Some of the participants in this study had a social connection to the series that either ignited or prolonged engagement with the series or came as an outgrowth of their interest in the series. Rhymechime both came to the series through social interaction and passed it on socially after. Rhymechime says, “Initially, I came across the Throne of Glass series on Tumblr and just listening to how passionate the fans were made me curious.” After falling in love with the characters, Rhymechime shared the series with her mother and older sister. In reading this series, she knew her sister would enjoy it:
My sister has the same connection to the series that I do. She is very picky about books and only picks up books that have strong female protagonists. She does writing of her own, in a different way (she writes movie scripts in New York) and she has written a movie about the struggles of "wives" in the 1940's and 1950's. She said the female characters she grew up with were always pushed aside and she always tried to find characters that portrayed actual woman that she could relate to.
Rhymechime discovered the series through passionate fans, then decided to share her love for the series in kind. A shared interest in strong female protagonists helped Rhymechime know exactly how to share this book.
Writinglover discovered the book in a similar way, through Tumblr. She says, “I first learned about TOG [Throne of Glass] on Tumblr. There was a fan made mood board with the quote ‘Libraries were full of ideas—perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.’ I thought that was very powerful and it piqued my interest.” Social interaction brought Writinglover to the series as fans shared their favorite aspects of the series through social media.
Line of flight. The adolescent-fanfiction section lends more insight into social interaction around the series through fanfiction. Obviously, all of the participants in this study engaged in social interaction around this series by sharing their fanfiction about the series with the world.
Distinct from connection with character, which I define as personally relating to a character or character trait, engagement with characters, even characters vastly different from the reader, was prevalent for the participants in the study. All six participants talked about how the characters kept them coming back to Throne of Glass. Chrisisdestruction talks about how he started reading Throne of Glass because of the main character, Celaena Sardothien. He is drawn to how the series revolves around her (and other characters’) feelings while they experience extreme highs and lows in the story. Chrisisdestruction is not alone in his admiration for the main character. TheBookWorm1718, Rhymechime, and Quietsteps all mention how they love the strong, female protagonist. Pax30 highlights how she does not just like characters that are similar to her, but rather she says, “I don't love the characters because I can relate to them, I love the way they're different from me. They're all unique and it adds even more to the story.” Pax30 loves the depth with which each character is written.
Several participants talked about how they were drawn to the way the characters interacted in the story. Pax30 loves “the bonds they create with each other,” and QuietSteps enjoys “the strength of the friendships written between characters.” Not only are these character relationships an integral piece of these participants’ engagement with the story, but they also enjoy how these relationships are also dynamic, changing along with the characters. Writinglover and Rhymechime both appreciate the lack of the static love triangle, and QuietSteps explains that “it's shown very well how each character changes through the series, and the relationships within the cast are shown to reflect these changes rather than stay stagnant.”
Perhaps the most telling information about how closely readers engage with these characters is found in the fanfiction itself. Beyond each participant writing thousands of words revolving around specific characters, in author notes to her readers Rhymechime says that the characters Elide and Lorcan “have control of my soul and I love them.”
Line of flight. The book-fanfiction section explores other ways in which the participants engaged with the characters in the series through fanfiction, including how the array of characters in the novel as well as their development is particularly fruitful for fanfiction.
All of the participants showed a strong preference for the fantasy genre. In listing their favorite books apart from Throne of Glass, all of them listed almost exclusively fantasy books such as The Chronicles of Nick series, A Court of Thornes and Roses series (the other series by Throne of Glass author Sarah J. Maas), Rick Riordan's series, the Six of Crows series, and books by Tamora Pierce and Cassandra Clare.
In addressing her love of fantasy, Writinglover says, “I like [fantasy] a lot because they deal with adventure and happen in different realities. I like being able to imagine their worlds in my head and play the scenes out like a movie.” Rhymechime adds, “Even though it's a land of fiction and magic, the character's and the story feels so real and true.”
Line of flight. While the participants did not go in to detail about their love for fantasy series, the ways in which fantasy novels lend themselves to engagement through fanfiction are outlined in the book-fanfiction section. This section hones in on some other aspects of the fantasy genre that the participants find appealing, if only for fanfiction purposes.
Five of the six participants mentioned the plot as a major reason he or she engaged with the Throne of Glass series. Quietsteps explains that what initially drew her to the series was the protagonist’s, Celaaena Sardothien’s, character, but what kept her hooked throughout the series was the plotline. Pax30, Rhymechime, and TheBookWorm1718 elaborate on this by specifying that the plot twists are what keeps them engaged. Pax30 says that she enjoys “how each book somehow will end up connecting to the others… the plot twists are amazing.” Pax30 is referring to the way that minor character or events in one novel of the series may end up becoming extremely important in later books. Additionally, the books are filled with twits in which the reader is kept clueless about the protagonist’s true plan until it is revealed to the other characters and the reader simultaneously. Even as a connoisseur of fantasy novels, Rhymechime notes that “the plot line actually surprised me.” Writinglover emphasized the drama of the plot, saying that she loves when characters are facing a deadline. She says, “in the first book she [Celaena] has to win the competition or go back to Endovier [a mine worked by slaves], which means there's a knife above her head waiting to drop if she fails.” The way the plotline of this series keeps readers waiting to see what happens next with constant surprises kept them engaged.
Five of the six participants valued elements of the series’ style as a way they kept engaged in the text. Chrisisdestruction, Quietsteps, and TheBookWorm1718 all commented on how the switching point of views kept them engaged in the novels. Quietsteps explains why this keeps her interest:
Possibly my favorite aspects of the writing style are the fact that each and every character has their own established goal in addition to the central goal of all the characters which keeps them feeling real, and the changing dynamics between the different characters. It's shown very well how each character changes through the series, and the relationships within the cast are shown to reflect these changes rather than stay stagnant. As a reader this keeps me on my toes and keeps me invested in each character's storyline.
For Quietsteps, the multiple perspectives allow each character to enjoy strong development, and this keeps her engaged while reading.
Other participants enjoyed other elements of Sarah J. Maas’ style. Rhymechime and Writinglover comment on how the story can feel so full and fleshed out, yet it is not full of long, descriptive prose. Writinglover addresses Maas’ style:
I fight really hard against the rigid grammar that was taught to me growing up. Sometimes my writing suffers because I have to have full sentences and things like that, but Maas cuts through the BS and it's very refreshing to read. I don't have to read through long prose or poetic nonsense. She cuts straight to the point and that keeps my attention.
Rhymechime reiterates this saying, “the style of writing is amazing and even long descriptions don't feel boring. Every part of this story is fully flushed out.” These participants enjoy how Maas develops characters and plot rather than wax poetic.
Half of the respondents mentioned a connection to the progressive themes of the novels. In talking about the kinds of books she likes to read, Quietsteps says that a commonality in her book choices are that they all have “a very diverse cast in terms of ethnicities, sexualities, and disabilities which I always find more interesting to read about.” While the Throne of Glass series did not start out incredibly diverse, WritingLover describes how they progressed:
She [Sarah J. Maas] had the idea for TOG [Throne of Glass] years ago and it has since then grown and she's trying to make it more inclusive in terms of POC [People of Color] and people with disabilities. I like that. I like that she recognizes her once limited view and has since then begun to expand her world to include more people.
Rhymechime also addresses the progressive bent of the books regarding the complexities of the protagonist’s romantic relationships. She says, “Even though Aelin had multiple boyfriends, she was never put into a love triangle and have these interests at different times in her life, like normal relationships.” While many books present a female protagonist with a choice between two male suitors, one of whom she finally chooses for life, Throne of Glass has the protagonist have meaningful romantic relationships with several people throughout the series before finding her “mate."
This section explores findings centering around the participants engagement with fanfiction in general, not limited to the Throne of Glass series. In this way the context of this literacy practice in taken into account. Findings included that participants enjoyed the access fanfiction gave them to what they considered quality texts for free and meeting their exact preferences. They also expressed a belief that fanfiction helped them to become better writers of their own original fiction and improved their general reading and writing skills. This educational value was motivating for them. Participants also stated that fanfiction gave them an outlet for self-expression while allowing them to more deeply immerse themselves in a story they loved. They also enjoyed the ability fanfiction gave them to interact with the authors of fanfiction or with the readers of their fanfiction. Finally, participants said reading and writing fanfiction was simply fun and a pleasurable activity in which to engage.
Some of the participants commented on enjoying the access the phenomenon of fanfiction and fanfiction.net itself gave them to stories. Writinglover commented on the sheer number of stories to be found on fanfiction.net, and TheBookword1718 likes how it is easy to publish and find fanfiction as well as the author profiles. Chrisisdestruction says, “Fanfiction.net is just one of my favorite sites because it is nothing but fanfiction.” It seems that the volume of fanfiction options in one space is appealing to these readers/writers. Perhaps it is what Pax30 says, “the great thing about fanfiction is if you don't like it, you can keep on moving on until you find one that you do like.” These participants enjoy being able to find exactly the content they are looking for, content that seems tailored to them. Because there is a sea of stories, by using the many tagging and filtering options on the site as well as reading the brief summaries of each story, it is easy to find what one wants and pass over what one does not want.
Fanfiction researchers have found that online fanfiction communities have become a teaching space for adolescent readers and writers (Black, 2005, 2006, 2007; Kell, 2009; B. Kelley, 2016; Korobkova & Black, 2014; Lammers, 2013, 2016; Lammers & Marsh, 2015; Land, 2010; Thomas, 2006). And Wilhelm and Smith (2014) found that adolescents take pleasure out of and find engagement in having an educational aspect to their choice reading. Participants in this study talked about the ways their involvement in fanfiction has improved their skills in some way. Pax30 and Rhymechime mention how they believed their participation in fanfiction improves how they read. Rhymechime says, “fanfiction has affected my reading positively too and I find myself able to read at a high level.” Pax30 is more specific about this reading:
I think I do gain a deeper understanding to the story after I write a fan fiction piece about it. There's something about going through the story and trying to sort out each character and action that really adds to my understanding of the plot and characters.
For these participants, it seems to be the volume of reading combined with the intense study of a work it takes to write about it that increases their perceived reading skills.
More so than reading, participants found that fanfiction improved their writing. Some participants credited the massive amounts of reading they have done for their improved writing. As WritingLover stated, “Oh yeah. By reading other's works, I learned how to use a comma basically.” Pax30 gives more detail about how fanfiction has improved her writing:
My writing skills have improved immensely from my fanfiction experience. I've gotten so much better at interpretation and writing figurative language. My writing is more interesting and having a beta really helps improve writing skills. If you look at my first ever fanficton piece on Keepers of the Lost Cities, you can really see the change in my writing style.
Similar to Pax30’s suggestion that having a Beta reader edit her work has improved her writing, TheBookWorm1718 says that reviews on her work has helped her increase her skills. Additionally, Quietsteps echoes Pax30’s statement about looking back on previous fanfictions still on the fanfiction.net site and being able to see improvement. She also goes further in explaining why fanfiction is a space that feeds her writing skill:
It allows me to practise writing with already established characters and settings, which is especially important in practising staying in character during writing. Fanfiction makes improving writing skills much easier than it would be otherwise since I don't need to spend excess time developing characters before I can start writing.
In this way, Quietsteps is addressing the ways in which writing fanfiction has assisted her in writing other narratives. This was a major area of importance to the participants, using fanfiction as a springboard for their own original fiction. Along with Quietsteps, Pax30, Rhymechime, and WritingLover all talked about how fanfiction has helped them along the path to writing their own original fiction. Quietsteps was the most specific about how fanfiction help her create riginal fiction saying, “as someone who hopes to publish my own fiction works in the future it allows me to practise my writing skills without needing to spend time developing characters and settings first, and by publishing my fanfiction I can get feedback on my work to help me improve.”
Line of flight. As seen here, several participants are fanfiction writers who wish to publish original fiction one day. Though, as seen in the adolescent-book section, most participants did not follow the Throne of Glass author, Sarah J. Maas’s, career closely. She was an adolescent fanfiction writer who eventually published her own fiction. While the participants did not seem aware of this connection, it is worth noting the similarities in the backgrounds of the author and these writers.
Five of the six participants talked about how fanfiction was a helpful form of self-expression, writing about how the space and form allowed for multiple ways to introduce personal creativity. Some participants remarked on the infinite freedom and control over a story a creator has in the fanfiction community including the ability to create original characters who interact with the world of the book. Others talked about the ability to remix traditional prose of fanfiction with graphic art, poetry, songs, or other media. Some participants even expressed how, through using other characters and other worlds, they sometimes inserted their own lives into the fanfiction space, making it a direct tool of expression and communication of self.
First, Chrisisdestruction, Pax30, and Rhymechime all addressed ways in which fanfiction gave them room to control a story and make it their own. Chrisisdestruction was the most profuse about this topic as it is one of the primary draws of fanfiction for him. Beyond saying that it is “relieving” to “vent to and have control over something,” ChrisisDestruction explained that “books always have to be in a certain format or always have to follow a linear path while a fanfiction can take whatever path its author wants to.” This freedom to go beyond the bounds of linear, traditional fiction was appealing to several participants.
Beyond this control over a story, Pax30 and Chrisisdestruction talked about control of the story through inserting their own original characters into a preestablished story. Pax30 explained why she likes writing using original characters (OC):
I write fanfiction that features my OC because I find it difficult to write fanfiction only about the cannon characters, I feel like I wouldn't do them justice but if I have my own OC then I can make them whatever I want while incorporating the Cannon characters to make my fanfic.
Pax30 describes the freedom she finds in original characters. While she may feel limited by certain personality traits or characteristics she has to get right when writing about the characters in the book, when writing about her own characters she has no limits, giving her more freedom to be creative within the fanfiction.
Fanfiction writers have other unique ways of expressing creativity in their writing. Remixing is a well-known part of fanfiction writing (Black, 2005; Black, 2006; Black, 2007; Black, 2008; Black, 2009; Chandler-Olcott & Mahar, 2002; Kelley, 2016; Korobkova & Black, 2014; Lammers, 2016; Roozen, 2009; Thomas, 2006), and the participants in this study engaged in remixing stories with art, poetry, and songs. Quietsteps worked with an artist to pair stories and illustrations, adding a visual component to her fanfiction. However, TheBookWorm1718 spoke the most about this element of her fanfiction. TheBookWorm1718 has two sets of fanfiction “stories” that are actually a series of poems, and she explained why she found poetry a suitable response to the Throne of Glass novels:
I think poetry adds another perspective to any book not just ToG. When you read or write poetry, you get into a character's head. You know how they feel. Most of the time, when you read books, you may know how the main character feels but not the other characters. Poetry communicates the feelings and emotions to readers.
TheBookWorm1718 responded to the Throne of Glass series with both prose and poetry, allowing her to both experience and communicate the emotions of the characters and herself more directly.
Finally, there were several ways in which the participants inserted themselves into their fanfiction stories, making them a direct form of self-expression. Three of the participants, Chrisisdestruction, Rhymechime, and Pax30, left author notes in their fanfiction, communicating directly with their audience about their lives or the stories. Chrisisdestruction began his story with an author note:
First thing is first, I probably won't get everything down perfectly since I'm doing this for fun. Second thing is I will write in my own way, not like the great Sarah J. Maas. Next is that this will follow some of the main story for the most part, but I will make this unique with my OC.
Chrisisdestruction uses author notes to clearly outline what readers can expect from his writing, establishing that he breaks away from both style an character from the original book. In this way he creates more room or his creativity. Similarly, Rhymechime uses author’s notes to express her love for a couple in the series saying, “Author's notes: Don't mind me I just needed some Elide and Lorcan fluff in my life...they have control of my soul and I love them. Hope you enjoy!” Beyond this direct self-insertion, there is other evidence of participants inserting their lives into their fanfiction to create self-expression. Quietsteps explains how part of her fanfiction, even about a fantasy series, draws from her real life saying, “I went to an all-girls school until I was 16 so I've always had a very close knit group of female friends around me, giving me plenty of experience to draw from… so I'm not surprised this shows through so much in my fanfiction.” Here there is a direct connection between the participant’s real-life experiences and what takes place in her fanfiction. Although fanfiction draws from preestablished works of fiction, opportunities for original creativity and self-expression both abound and are taken-up by fanfiction authors.
Another aspect of fanfiction that was important to the participants was the level of immersion into the story it allowed them. Two phrases that were repeated with several participants were “fill-in the gaps” and “more time with characters.” Participants saw fanfiction as a way to delve into the minutiae of a story and therefore immerse themselves in it. Five of the six participants described how fanfiction allows them to fill-in the gaps of stories, whether that is plot, character, or emotional gaps. This filling-in the gaps expands the time spent with each character or idea in the novel. Writing lover speaks to this:
With traditional books the story and characters have to be plot driven, and can't divert from that too much or else it's distracting and nonsensical. But with fanfiction, we get a lot of time back. Fanfiction uses that time to fill in gaps like character bonding, or back story, or just time for the characters to have a coffee and relax.
With fanfiction, authors are not limited by what Chrisisdestruction calls “a linear path.” Rather, fanfiction writers can devote as much time as they want to small character development scenes. Quietsteps agrees with this saying, “I feel like fanfiction is much better at exploring character's feelings than traditional books are, prioritising scenes with domestic moments and conversations that would normally be skipped over in favour of plot-advancing scenes in traditional books.” With hundreds of these stories available for each book and infinite stories available in the minds of the fanfiction authors, this leads to a deep immersion in the world of the book. Pax30 says this is why she writes fanfiction:
I write fanfiction to immerse myself more into the story. When I write my fanfic, I look for plot holes and fill them with my own original content. It makes me feel like I'm in the story…its always been a fantasy of mine to be in a fictional world, and writing a Throne of Glass fanfiction is a way for me to be a part of a world as amazing as Sarah J. Mass'.
Writing fanfiction puts authors inside their favorite stories where they can interact with the world and shape it.
Line of flight. In the book-fanfiction section findings include that Throne of Glass lends itself to fanfiction because the world is so vast and full of characters with which to create side-line, non-linear stories about.
One of the key draws to fanfiction the participants indicated was interaction. Whether it was interaction with the authors of fanfiction they read, interaction with the readers of the fanfiction they write, or collaboration in creating fanfiction, reading and writing in community was a benefit of fanfiction they found to be unique. From the very beginning of creating a fanfiction piece, collaboration is key for many of the participants. All of Writinglover’s Throne of Glass fanfiction was created from prompts she received from readers. By having her readers request specific stories, the line between author and reader is blurred, as with the practice of fanfiction itself. The readers shape which stories get told in this direct exchange. Similarly, Quietsteps wrote about Throne of Glass because of a fan-generated writing activity that paired a fan artist with an fanfiction writer. Quietsteps collaborated with the artist to write her fanfiction. Writinglover has a less formal form of collaboration in her writing by bouncing ideas off of a friend before she writes. After a draft of a story is finished, Pax30 has a beta reader improve her story before posting. In all of these ways, the writing process is collaborative from the beginning for many of the participants.
Three participants, Crisisdestruction, Pax30, and Rhymechime all include author’s notes in their fanfiction. In these notes they directly address their readers, explaining parts of their stories or even responding to reviews. Pax30 explained why she leaves author notes saying, “I think it adds the presence of the author. Instead of it being just the reader and the story, there's the author too. I also started replying to reviews about halfway through my story. I wanted to let my readers know that I appreciate them.” To Pax30, fanfiction is enhanced when the presence of the author is strongly felt, when there is interaction between author and reader.
Finally, all of the participants enjoyed getting reviews and feedback from their readers. Quietsteps’ comments reflect many of the participants’ views:
I'm always thrilled to receive reviews, regardless of how long or short they are. I find it particularly rewarding when a reviewer picks out moments in a chapter that stand out to them, and when writing multichapter fics I enjoy reading their speculations of where the plot will progress since I already know if they're right or wrong. I'm always grateful for constructive.
Quietsteps shows how meaningful reviews can be to a fanfiction author both emotionally and in improving writing. As she says, reviews can also be somewhat interactive as readers guess the plot of the fiction as it evolves. In turn for these reviews, most of the participants were eager to leave reviews for the fanfictions they read, knowing how meaningful it can be for an author.
Wilhelm and Smith (2014) noted that a key to reading engagement was pleasure. Beyond all the other draws participants had to fanfiction, many indicated that participating in fanfiction was enjoyable. Chrisisdestruction and WritingLover, when asked why they participated in the fanfiction community, both said simply that it was fun. Pax30 gave more insight into the excitement over fanfiction:
I usually have stages of small obsessions of certain series or movies and an idea will just hit me… I think of a few scenes that I can't wait to write and where in the plot they'd be, and just begin writing. And when I hit a writers block, I'll usually push through it, or find another thing to be obsessed with and the cycle begins all over again.
Pax30 goes beyond “fun” and “enjoyment” and calls engagement with fanfiction “small obsessions” that she “can’t wait” to write about.
In this final section of findings, the interconectedness of materials and themes is most evident. This section describes not simply the participants’ experience with either fanfiction or the Throne of Glass series, but, rather, describes both how participants viewed and how participants’ fanfiction illuminated the intra-actions between this particular series and fanfiction. This section explores how the Throne of Glass series entangles with the fanfiction space and congeals to form the literacy practice. This section is divided into subsections describing how the characters, genre and plot of the Throne of Glass series as well as the existing fanbase of the series all intra-act with the fanfiction space.
Characters were a major draw for participants to the Throne of Glass series, and this was evident in the way that Throne of Glass characters intra-acted with the fanfiction space. One key way the characters and fanfiction intra-acted was that the sheer number of characters in Throne of Glass allowed for plentiful fanfiction. Quietsteps explained this aspect of the multitude of characters:
The very large cast gives me a lot of freedom as a fanfiction writer to select the characters I most want to write about rather being stuck with a smaller group of characters… the large cast meant I could have a more developed storyline with use of background characters taken from the story in addition to the main characters I focused on.
Queitsteps agreed with this as the many characters in the book allowed for many relationships to explore. Particularly, the large cast of female characters allowed Quietsteps to write about female friendships, a subject dear to her heart. Quietstesps also thought that, beyond the sheer number of characters, “the depth of the characters' backstories gives them a very detailed personality, which makes the writing process both easier (since there's more material to work with) and more rewarding.” Each character is given enough space and time to allow for sparking interest in the minds of fanfiction writers. Writinglover expressed a main reason she chose to write fanfiction for Throne of Glass was because she felt she had a good grasp on many of the characters. However, that is balanced by not getting quite enough of all the characters to be satisfied. Rhymechime couldn’t even find enough fanfiction about her favorite characters, Elide and Lorcan. She said, “I love Elide and Lorcan as characters and even though they are minor characters, I wanted to explore their lives and personalities more… The character's, especially the minor ones, have not been explored fully and writing fanfiction can give them more depth.” It was clear that the vast number of intriguing, fully fleshed-out characters left the fanfiction writers wanting to read and write more about them.
The plot of the Throne of Glass series was also a prominent reason that the participants chose to write about it. Interestingly, while the plot twists and story line is an aspect that drew many participants to reading the series, in writing it seems the parts of the plot that left readers dissatisfied led to their fanfiction. Rhymechime said, “Fanfiction is for the fans. For fans who weren't given proper endings. Or given horrible endings that need to be changed.” Chrisisdestruction seemed to agree saying that there were just so many things that could have been. This feeling of needing to fix or complete parts of the plot was important to the fanfiction writers. TheBookWorm1718 felt a different type of dissatisfaction saying, “The ending of Empire of Storms left me crying and upset. It was one of the craziest endings I’ve ever read, so I wanted to pick up and take away some of my grief.” The plot left TheBookWorm1718 so distraught that she felt fanfiction was a necessary way to deal with her grief. With its many plot twists, Throne of Glass leaves many characters in dire circumstances or with unhappy endings. This balance between satisfying readers enough to stick with the series while generating enough emotion to leave readers wanting to engage with fanfiction is a tension Throne of Glass holds well.
Beyond the specific characters and plot of Throne of Glass, it semes the fantasy genre of the series played a large role in the participant’s fanfiction. Participants found a fantasy novel, as opposed to a realistic one, provided more lee-way in writing. When asked what other books or original works for which they wrote fanfiction, all participants listed many and mostly speculative fiction books, television shows, or movies such as Naruto, Six of Crows, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Stranger Things, and Game of Thrones. TheBookWorm1718 was the only participant who had not written any other fanfiction.
Pax30 comments on this fantasy element of fanfiction, specifically with Throne of Glass, saying “its always been a fantasy of mine to be in a fictional world, and writing a Throne of Glass fanfiction is a way for me to be a part of a world as amazing as Sarah J. Mass'.” In this was the fantasy world draws her into writing. Rhymechime also comments on why fantasy worlds might serve as better fodder for writing, “because it is a land of magic, it is easy to explore the world itself and mold it the way you want.” While the real world has fixed rules that limit fictional possibilities, a fantasy world has opened the door for new twists and turns even beyond what’s already present in the story itself.
Additionally, participants found the vast world of Throne of Glass left room for parallel stories to be written alongside the official stories in the book. Because the series is so large and covers so much space, time, and so many characters as may fantasy books do, many doors to characters and plots are opened and then quickly shut, sparking imaginaition and leaving room for interpretation. It is in the spaces where writiers feel the need to fill-in the gap that the participants chose to use for their fanfiction. Pax30 said, “I like to write about parts of the book that haven't been explained. Or parts I'd like to see more of.” Chrisisdestruction felt, “there's just so many things that could have been” and Rhymechime said, “the character's, especially the minor ones, have not been explored fully and writing fanfiction can give them more depth.” For all of these participants, some element of the vast series felt incomplete. With a realistic and therefore oftentimes more limited in scope novel, less is left unexplored. In this way fantasy and other speculative fiction allows for more opportunity for fan input.
Finally, because Throne of Glass is an ongoing series rather than a single entity or even a completed series, there is constant room for talking back to the series in predicting the direction in which the next book will take the characters and plot. The series format allows for natural stopping places to write or even long breaks before the next book comes out to generate a need for more stories. While several of the participants used fanfiction as a way to pass the time before the next book in the series cam out, TheBookWorm1718 talked most directly to this saying, “I probably wouldn't feel as strongly to write if it was finished. I needed to know what happened at the end of EoS [Empire of Storms] and how all of the characters felt throughout the books, so I wrote about it. I probably wouldn't write as much about it if it were finished.” Leaving a book on a clifhanger and having to wait a year or longer for the next book in the series to come out makes even more space for the unanswered and unexplored than what already exists in the vast world.
Finally, the existing fandom already surrounding Throne of Glass influences the creation of fanfiction. Not only did some participants find Throne of Glass through the fandom to begin with as Rhymechime and Writinglover both initialy became intrigued because of social media posts with quotes and fanart about the book, but some were also driven to create fanfiction because of the fandom. Rhymechime scoured the internet for fanfiction about a couple in the book she was particularly interested in and, finding few stories, wrote her own. In this way her fanfiction creation was a response to the community. Beyond this, some participants, Quietsteps and Writinglover, wrote their fanfiction for the story based on preexisting competitions or bespoke prompts in the fandoms. In this way the fact that Throne of Glass already has an active fandom perpetuates and snowballs into more fans latching on and participating in the community.
Each intra-action described here forms part of the larger mapping of the literacy experience. Each theme is an interconnected part of the whole that must be taken into account when observing the mingling of fanfiction, adolescent, and book. Figure 1 shows a mapping of these intra-actions and themes into an interconnected rhizome.
I began this study as a way to explore a hybrid traditional and New Literacies practice in a wholistic way in order to begin thinking about bridging the gap between in and out-of-school literacies organically instead of in the decontaxtualized way technology is often brought into the classroom. My own experience as a teacher showed me just how difficult truly incorporating New Literacies into my classroom could be, and research in New Literacies proved this was not limited to my experience alone. Students still lack a connection between their in and out-of-school literacies (Black, 2007; Black, 2008; Black, 2009c; Korobkova & Black, 2014; Lammers & Marsh, 2015; Thomas, 2006). Whether it is because teachers are unknowledgeable about technology (Kalonde & Mousa, 2016), feel constrained by top-down mandates (Kalonde & Mousa, 2016), or are unwilling to engage with New Literacies because of negative perceptions (Lubke, 2013), technology is often only used to disseminate information (Rueda, 2013), ignoring the “ethos” of New Literacies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006).
Fanfiction in particular is a fruitful element of study for bridging these in and out-of-school literacies as Lankshear and Knobel (2006) noted. While reading and writing somewhat traditional prose, fanfiction writers also engage in many New Literacies practices. Because of this, uninformed or hesitant teachers may find fanfiction a more palatable bridge to New Literacies than other formats. The danger, however, is in removing fanfiction from its context to simply become another traditional literacy practice within the classroom. For this reason, this study sought not only to provide more information about the rich literacy practices that take place in this New Literacy context, something for which there is a constantly increasing body of work, but also to explore new ways of examining this and other literacy practices that could hopefully be more useful in transplanting a practice from the out-of-school context to the in-school. In viewing a phenomenon as a rhizome which must be transplanted as a whole rather than cut off from its context, a New Materialist lens offers an understanding that may prove helpful in this re-contextualizing process.
In the following chapter I discuss the ways in which the findings of this study exemplify both the traditional and New Literacies practices that are integral to providing a hybrid traditional-New Literacies experience for students as well as the implications for incorporating the practice into an in-school context. I begin with discussion and implications for each noted intra-action in the assemblage (book-adolescent, adolescent-fanfiction, book-fanfiction), and then move on to discussion and implications for the assemblage as a whole.
The intra-action between book and adolescent is one that takes place both in traditional literacy and, in this case, in New Literacies. The intra-actions the participants had with the book in the process of their fanfiction writing exemplify some of the traditional literacy skills still highly valued in classrooms. For example, participants’ focus on multiple well-developed characters and intricate plotting show readings that emphasize one common core standard:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.3: Analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed). (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2018)
The participants in this study made specific comments about character and plot development, as seen in their connections and engagement with characters and plot, that showed analysis of these elements, just as the traditional standards require. Additionally, participants noted the strengths of the multi-voiced structure of the text, meeting another Common Core standard:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.5: Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact. (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2018)
The participants in this study showed evidence of readings that were attentive to the elements of literature emphasized in the Common Core standards, showing that these fanfiction readers are still engaging with the traditional literacy values of the English/ Language Arts classroom.
While maintaining this traditional literacy focus, the intra-actions between the book and the adolescents in this study still incorporated many of the New Literacies skills necessary to navigate the changing media landscape. The ways in which fanfiction practices exemplify New Literacies is outlined at length in chapter two. However, for this particular study we see additional evidence of this. Particular to the adolescent-fanfiction intra-action, we see a social connection to the book series and author as indicative of the ethos of New Literacies. Several of the participants discovered the series through social media and then shared their reading with friends in real life and online. This, along with following the author’s social media accounts, shows the collaborative and participatory way of New Literacies explored by several researchers (Coiro & Moore, 2012; Kellinger, 2012; Lankshear & Knobel, 2006; Leu et al., 2013; Sang & Park, 2017; Simsek & Simsek, 2013).
In addition to exemplifying both traditional and New Literacy qualities, the findings of this study revealed several points at which the participants intra-acted with the Throne of Glass series that have implications for text selection in a classroom wanting to combine traditional and New Literacies. Several of these points fit with what we already know about engagement with literature. The participants’ connection with characters, such as learning to be strong despite a disability with the character of Elide, echoed what several researchers have already found about adolescents engaging with literature with which they can construct their identity (Ivey & Johnston, 2013; Kirkland, 2011; Wilhelm & Smith, 2014). However, participants also enjoyed reading about characters that were vastly different from themselves. Rather than being interested in specific types of characters, the findings indicate that it is a diversity of well-developed characters that draw engagement from readers. Participants remarked about the number of characters and how much each character was fleshed-out and changed throughout the series. The implications of this for text selection in the hybrid traditional and New Literacies classroom is that teachers may need to incorporate texts with multiple characters and multiple points of view. The more diversity among characters in a single book or possibly across texts, the better.
In addition to characters, just as Wilhelm and Smith (2014) identified several qualities of literature that engage adolescents, this study showed that the multi-voiced structure and the vast fantasy world with an intricate plot were some of the key features of the Throne of Glass series that participants noted. One way to engage students in reading, especially for the purpose of engaging in New Literacies, may be to incorporate novels with these features in the classroom. While fantasy is a genre that tends to be kept out of the classroom, this study along with others (Wilhelm & Smith, 2014) suggests that it may need to become a part of the curriculum for the purposes of engagement. Beyond this, the multi-voiced structure of Throne of Glass appealed to the participants, connecting to the ways in which they were able to engage with multiple characters, both similar and dissimilar to themselves.
Finally, the participants in this study engaged with the progressive themes of the Throne of Glass series. In addition to valuing having multiple diverse characters for the purpose of engagement, participants valued diverse characters for real-world representation. This includes characters with disabilities, various sexual orientations, and various races. They particularly enjoyed how female characters were portrayed as strong protagonists. For this reason, beyond making sure there are a wide variety of characters in the literature provided for students, teachers may try to ensure texts go beyond traditional tropes of gender roles and heterosexual, white, able-bodied characters in order to engage students.
The ways that the adolescents in this study intra-acted with fanfiction were obviously indicative of many elements of New Literacies. Of course creating and posting fanfiction requires new technologies. Beyond that, the respondents in this study valued the wide dispersion of content about the series. They enjoyed being able to search through hundreds of stories to find the exact content they wanted, and they enjoyed the immediate access to the content. Furthermore, the process of writing and posting fanfiction was collaborative throughout from writing collaboratively with artists, friends, or beta readers to interacting with reader comments. In these collaborations, some participants took part in multimodal creations that were a combination of prose and art. In all these ways, this process of fanfiction was a rich New Literacies experience for the participants.
However, writing fanfiction was also a rich traditional literacy experience for students. In viewing the Common Core standards for writing, it is easy to see how writing fanfiction meets many standards, the most obvious of which is the set of standards regarding writing narratives:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.3.A: Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation and its significance, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.3.B: Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.3.C: Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole and build toward a particular tone and outcome (e.g., a sense of mystery, suspense, growth, or resolution).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.3.D: Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.3.E: Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative. (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2018)
The fanfiction writers in this study not only practice all of these elements in their writing, but seek feedback on how to better achieve these goals through their beta and general readers.
Any narrative writing would meet the goals of the narrative writing standards. However, fanfiction writing has the added benefit of meeting the Common Core production and distribution of writing standards:
Production and Distribution of Writing:
CSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1-3 above.)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.5: Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and including grades 11-12 here.)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.6: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information. (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2018)
Writing fanfiction requires attention to task, purpose, and audience. Participants in this study noted their interaction with their audience in creating their narratives, looking for gaps in the stories in the community, asking for prompts to write exactly what their audience wanted, and even choosing to write or not based on if the audience appreciated what they wrote. The writers in this study also engaged in the editing process through beta readers and even slowly improving each different story over time through feedback. Finally, there may be few writing projects that more naturally meet the standard about collaborating around technology-produced texts and updating in response to feedback as fanfiction. The participants in this study all used technology to publish and update stories. Many collaborated throughout some portion of the experience. And most of them communicated with their audience in some way, responding to feedback in updating chapters.
Beyond meeting these Common Core standards, these participants demonstrated other indicators of traditional literacy, especially in how their responses indicated self-efficacy and reader/writer identity, key elements to engaged reading (Beach & Ward, 2013; De Naeghel et al., 2012; Gambrell & Morrow, 1996; Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000; McCombs, 1996). The respondents noted how, in their eyes, participating in the fanfiction community helped them become better readers and writers. In their own words, participants indicated that writing fanfiction increased their traditional literacy skills and their view of themselves as readers/writers.
With the benefits to both traditional and New Literacies’ skills evident in this practice, incorporating it into the classroom could be a helpful step toward bridging in and out-of-school literacies. The findings of this study imply some major elements teachers may want to keep in mind when trying to bring fanfiction into the classroom. One of the major elements participants in this study noted about their involvement with fanfiction was the immense access they had to stories that fit their exact wishes. Here, a traditional reading motivation tool of choice is evident (Allington & Cunnignham, 2007; Brozo & Hargis, 2011; Gambrell & Morrow, 1996; Guthrie & Humenick, 2004; Ivey & Johnston, 2013; Oldfather, 1996). Teachers incorporating fanfiction should help students understand how the millions of stories available allows them to choose exactly what they would like to read, and help guide them towards examples they may be interested in. This element of finding one’s exact preferences was important to the intra-action of the participants in this study, and may be key to creating buy-in within the classroom. However, it is important to note that the freedom of fanfiction allows for many narratives that may be uncomfortable and inappropriate for a classroom setting. Teachers should be wary and clear with students about this and knowledgeable about how to search for stories with appropriate maturity ratings.
Just like any other medium, genre, or combination of the two, one must know the conventions before attempting to engage with them. Students should be exposed to the format of fanfiction before attempting to write it. In particular, instruction in the New Literacies elements of the format may be necessary. While instructing in the common core strand on producing and distributing writing, instruction on the particular example of fanfiction could serve as an illustration of these points. Students would need to explore how fanfiction authors interact with and appeal to their audience through author notes and reader feedback. Instruction in how to be aware of the fandom community and what kinds of stories they are interested in can help students interact through their writing.
Students should be introduced to the many options they have for creative expression through fanfiction. Beyond direct narratives, students she be exposed to remixed and multi-modal options such as songfics and collaborations between artists and writers. Not only does this incorporate some of the important New Literacies elements of fanfiction, but, to the participants in this study, it was important to the overall experience of creative expression they found in the literacy practice.
Finally, the process of writing fanfiction should be made as collaborative as possible. This may include paring or grouping students to create fiction together or creating a system for beta readers or reviewers. Teachers could set up this collaboration through a traditional fanfiction site such as fanfiction.net or, after exploring fanfiction.net, set up a closed system on which students could interact with one another online, creating an online classroom community centered around fanfiction.
The findings for the book-fanfiction intra-action may be the most instructive on how the practice of fanfiction works as a whole assemblage and may have the most direct impact on any attempt to bring fanfiction into the classroom. The findings of the study suggested that the Throne of Glass series was an accessible series for fanfiction writers because of its large cast, vast, continuing world, and existing fandom – qualities not shared with traditional classroom novels. These findings imply that it may not be any work of fiction that can be easily worked into fanfiction.
The participants in the study found in the series room for their own voice through vast characters that needed further description, winding plots that sparked predictions, and vast worlds in which to set original characters. For teachers, books with a wide selection of characters and voices, plot twists, and an extensive setting might be better suited for this type of engagement. Beyond the world being vast, the world was also ongoing. As discussed previously, at the time of this study, the final book in the series had yet to be published. This created a need for closure and an immediacy to the fanfiction they were writing. For teachers, this may translate into choosing ongoing series or more contemporary books that are still part of ongoing discussions or perhaps adaptations. Books that are part of the current cultural ether may provide the sense of immediacy that encourage deep immersion in writing.
Additionally, some participants engaged in fanfiction because of or through the existing fandom. From first discovering the series through the fandom, filling-in gaps missing in the fanfiction space, or receiving requests from the fandom, this interaction with fans of the series made a difference in the engagement of the participants. For teachers, it may be necessary to select texts that have some sort of fandom, allowing students to join in an existing community for full engagement in the New Literacies aspect of the literacy activity.
As a whole, especially with the book-fanfiction intra-action in mind, it is evident that many factors contribute to the literacy practice of fanfiction. Many materials intra-act to create this assemblage, and, to use it effectively in the classroom, attention to each material and each intra-action is key.
New Literacies are imbedded in this assemblage as each material reflects elements of New Literacies. The text itself is dynamic and was discovered by participants through multimodal, collaborative technology involving new interactions with text. The fanfiction involved technology, wide dispersion, and new interactions with text while being dynamic, multimodal, collaborative, authentic, and personalized. And the adolescents engaged with all of these New Literacies elements. It is key that it is not the fanfiction alone that displayed these qualities, but rather each individual participant and the book itself fit within a model that worked with this framework.
From a traditional literacy perspective, it is in taking a larger view of the assemblage, when all of the materials combine, that we see the most value is gained. Participants described how writing fanfiction allowed them to become more immersed in the original story and traditional text they were reading. Yet it is obvious that writing fanfiction also requires a deep understanding of the text. In this way fanfiction both requires traditional literacy skills and creates them. Rather than merely an assessment of understanding, fanfiction could be used as a literacy strategy and tool.
However, isolating this tool to a classroom context could remove much of its engaging potential. The participants in this study came to fanfiction in many different ways. Some only came to the book itself through fandom. Some fell in love with the book and needed to express their love. Some were not particularly attached to the book, but rather enjoyed participating in a vibrant community. Still others found the book missing key elements that they wanted to see and found themselves rewriting the text to fit their vision. Even though this study focused on one series and one community, each case exemplified how each individual adolescent is also a material that intra-acts with the space and the text in different ways. Each adolescent was connected to the rhizome of the literacy practice through diverse avenues.
Because of these findings of the diverse avenues through which each participant connected to the rhizome of the assemblage, a major implication for teachers is that the more choices and entry points a teacher can give students, the better. With each material in the study, teachers may find a different way of ensuring multiple entry points. In this study, the book itself created vast spaces for different input, and the fanfiction space allowed for complete freedom of expression. Overall, the findings of this study suggest that, to truly incorporate New Literacies into the traditional literacy classroom, teachers must open up space within traditional literacy through texts and assignments that engage at various entry points, and allow for collaboration throughout the process from text selection to reading and writing.
There are several aspects of this study that should be repeated and extended to assist in our understanding of bringing New Literacies into the traditional classroom. First, education researchers should continue to explore using a New Materialist lens in order to take in the entire context of out-of-school literacies. As this study was done on a small scale, more studies are needed exploring how all the aspects of fanfiction come together to create the practice. Beyond this, studies that take into account more than text, adolescent, and fanfiction space would be useful. Studies that observe fanfiction writers in the process of reading and writing fanfiction in their normal setting will gain more insight into the full entanglement of materials that create the literacy practice. Additionally, researchers should expand beyond fanfiction to explore other New Literacies practices that can be used in the classroom such as blogging, social media, podcasts, live-streaming, etc.
Beyond this, it is essential that practical classroom research be done. Researchers need to explore how a literacy practice like this functions in a real classroom. From a New Materialist perspective, no matter how much this study has attempted to take context into account, the new context of the classroom will assuredly have an impact on the assemblage. Beyond taking into account the text, the student, and the fanfiction space, a New Materialist study on a classroom application of fanfiction would include the teacher, the technology, and the classroom atmosphere itself.
Just like when I tried to engage my students with new technologies in a podcast project yet found that there was something else that they were interested in, teachers cannot ever be fully prepared to engage students with new technologies in this rapidly changing world. New Literacies has created a world in which people can find exactly the content with which they want to engage and communicate about that content in whichever way they wish any time they wish. As teachers, our rigid, stationary assignments and texts cannot compete but also cannot prepare our students for this reality.
Rather than be discouraged, it is time teachers stop franticly trying to engage with each new piece of content or technology and begin to explore the ethos of these changing communications. To do this we must explore the ideas behind each aspect of current communication and connect those to the traditional, academically-valued skills that we are required to teach and know are still valuable for students. This requires a reimaging of the materials with which we choose to teach.
First, a reexamination of our texts is necessary. We need texts that provide entry points for all of our students with multiple, diverse characters with which they can both connect and engage. Additionally, as in my experience with my podcast project, I had chosen traditional novels that had been the same for decades while they were interested in what was happening right now, the FCC net neutrality hearing. Though they still managed to connect the live-stream FCC hearing to historical documents, the historical elements were connected to an ongoing cultural conversation, not isolated to the past. Students need to be able to connect with an ongoing, culturally relevant text. We also need to reimagine our assignments as not isolated interactions between a student and a teacher, but authentic interactions with a class and a wider audience. Assignments should not be finished products, but a continuing, ongoing product. Finally, we need to reimagine our adolescents not as drones connected to their devices who cannot focus on one extended task, but rather as humans capable of interacting with constantly changing materials in ways with which we sometimes cannot fathom.
This study provides one limited look at one New Literacy practice that takes into account text, assignment, and adolescent, looking for ways that we as teachers can both meet adolescents with all of their diverse interests yet also prepare them to be active, knowledgeable participants in the media landscape in which we know they are entering. By carefully examining and rethinking each material in our classrooms and how each fits with others, we can more closely bridge the gap between in and out-of-school literacies that leave so many of our students disengaged and unprepared for their future.