Messina (2021)

Author

Messina, C. M.

Year

2021

Title

The Critical Fan Toolkit: Fanfiction Genres, Ideologies, and Pedagogies

University

Northeastern University

Discipline (uncoded)

English

Macrostructure

Traditional-Simple

Proposed Area of Unconventionality
(Tardy, 2016)

Rhetorical aims and strategies, modality, linguistic and textual forms

Description and other notes

Website and institutional copy (written component). Written component/Institutional copy compiles writing found on the website but is not meant to replicate the website or to be read in a linear manner (as one would assume might be the norm for more conventional print-based dissertations). Envisions an audience beyond those with paid access to a Proquest database. Wanted to create a product that fans both find useful and accessible. Provides teaching materials; Includes published materials. Link to website:  http://www.criticalfantoolkit.org/

(Proposed) Degree of separation or connection between atypical or unconventional component(s) and conventional or written component(s)

Separate. Atypical component positioned as separate from the written component / institutional copy. For example: “The Critical Fan Toolkit is an entirely digital dissertation on a website. The institutional copy is specifically to preserve the textual writing done for the website.” (p. 13).

(Proposed) Type of relationship construed between atypical or unconventional component(s) and conventional or written component(s)

Parallel. The  unconventional component (website) is construed as the actual dissertation. The written component / institutional copy is meant to serve as a record and does not replicate the website (other than the writing, which was done for the website).

Notes/Reasoning

The written component is meant to serve as an archive for the dissertation materials, but the fact that the dissertation is a digital one is placed up front in the first sentence of the abstract, and the first paragraph of the introduction reiterates this: “The Critical Fan Toolkit is an entirely digital dissertation on a website. This copy is specifically to preserve the textual writing done for the website. However, this writing is all done within the context of an interactive website and therefore is not meant to be read linearly. Visit the website URL below to experience the full effect of this dissertation.” (p. 13). The reader is encouraged to refer to the website throughout the dissertation. Both the website and the dissertation include typical components you’d expect to find in a dissertation (for the most part), such as the methods, findings and discussion. The conventional elements are nested within the dissertation while also set alongside at the same time.  This is achieved by imagining multiple entry points to the dissertation based on the readers the author imagines (fans, scholars, teachers). Clicking on the scholars button, for instance, brings you to the dissertation materials page, where you find the traditional materials you’d associate with a dissertation. I want to say connected-parallel which sounds like a paradox but could be achieved through a website where pages sit beside eachother without the sorts of intra-texual weavings often seen in books with ideas that run across chapters. At the same time it’s clear we’re looking at one project.

Discipline 2 (coded)

English

Discipline Grouping (coded)

HUM

Source

Word of Mouth