Article: All Was Well? A Comparison of Harry Potter Slash Fan Fiction Activity Online in the Years 2013 and 2024
Author(s): Cuntz-Leng, Vera
Abstract
Harry Potter fan fiction accompanied and dominated the establishing of fan fiction as cultural practice in the digital realm that appealed to a wider mainstream audience. It is undeniably still a large community with an immense creative output, whereas slash fan fiction (homoerotic and/or queer rewritings of the original material) make up for more than half of all the Harry Potter fan texts. However, platforms and certain trends (e.g., popular pairings) have evolved and changed over time. Therefore, the approach of this paper is two-fold: Comparing data gathered in 2013 on Harry Potter slash fan fiction on the four platforms Archive of Our Own, FictionAlley, Ink-Stained Fingers, and Restricted Section with recent data of Archive of Our Own enables us to show a) changes in the quantity and availability of fan fiction as well as migration movements and b) changes in the popularity of certain character constellations (pairings/ships) used in Harry Potter slash. It will become visible that the Harry Potter slash fandom is still very much alive but—or possibly because—it is not a static phenomenon but very sensitive towards external and internal influences. Long-term monitoring of online fan activities may help us to better understand why and how fandoms evolve and persist over time.
Preferred Citation
BibTex
Cuntz-Leng, Vera: All Was Well? A Comparison of Harry Potter Slash Fan Fiction Activity Online in the Years 2013 and 2024. In: Fandom | Cultures | Research. Online Journal for Fan and Audience Studies, Jg. 1 (2024), Nr. 1, S. 39-62. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/23326.
@ARTICLE{Cuntz-Leng2024,
author = {Cuntz-Leng, Vera},
title = {All Was Well? A Comparison of Harry Potter Slash Fan Fiction Activity Online in the Years 2013 and 2024},
year = 2024,
doi = "\url{http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/23326}",
volume = 1,
address = {Marburg},
journal = {Fandom | Cultures | Research. Online Journal for Fan and Audience Studies},
number = 1,
pages = {39--62},
}
author = {Cuntz-Leng, Vera},
title = {All Was Well? A Comparison of Harry Potter Slash Fan Fiction Activity Online in the Years 2013 and 2024},
year = 2024,
doi = "\url{http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/23326}",
volume = 1,
address = {Marburg},
journal = {Fandom | Cultures | Research. Online Journal for Fan and Audience Studies},
number = 1,
pages = {39--62},
}
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