CFP: (dis)junctions: Harry Potter Fan Fiction and Communities (grad) (1/7/05; 4/8/05-4/9/05)

CFP: (dis)junctions: Hidden Broom Closets and Covert
Common Rooms: Harry Potter Fan Fiction and Communities
(grad) (1/7/05; 4/8/05-4/9/05)

(dis)junctions: theory reloaded (April 8-9, 2005)

This call for papers is for a proposal panel to be
held at (dis)junctions: theory reloaded at the
University of California Riverside’s 12th Annual
Humanities Graduate Conference on April 8-9, 2005.

Although fairly new on the fan fiction scene, J.K.
Rowling’s Harry Potter books have quickly and
whole-heartedly been embraced by fan fiction
comminutes, with over 100,000 fics currently
circulating on-line, and archives such as
fanfiction.net and fictionalley.org receiving several
new submissions a day and hundreds of readers daily.
Writers of HP fanfic both rely on paradigms and
scenarios established by earlier writers working with
more established texts in the fanfic canon, but also
create wholly new situations in which the witches and
wizards of Hogwarts explore situations,
characterizations, politics, and themes that Rowling,
at most, leaves on the margins of her books. Some of
the tropes explored in HP fanfic include romance,
racial/sexual/gender/class identity,
girlhood/boyhood/childhood studies, friendship/family,
magic, death, and both alternative and traditional
renderings of masculinity and femininity. Ultimately,
this writing does the job of examining the perceived
strengths and weaknesses in Rowling’s texts and then
performs the risky job of reconceptualizing a world
that is well known and loved by many readers
throughout the world.
This panel will explore the creative talents of
writers, editors, readers, and archivists of Harry
Potter fan fiction with particular attention paid to
close readings of the fiction itself, the relationship
between fan fiction and the Rowling’s texts, and
insights into the fan community itself.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:
1. Analysis of common tropes in HP fan fiction (queer
re-readings, magic/muggle relations, redefinition of
magic, (tw)incest, etc.). Tensions and similarities
between the canon and the fanon.
2. Depictions of race, class, sexuality, and gender in
HP fan fiction.
3. Discussions of specific fan activities (e.g.,
vidding, Livejournal, zines, blogs, artwork, and
fanfic contests). Critical analysis of fan fiction as
community through on-line discussion boards, archives,
initiation of newbies, etc.
4. The place of the academic fan, the relationship
between reader/writer, writer/community, writer/beta.
5. Writings dealing specifically with common genres of
HP fan fiction (slash, genfic, ship, hurt/comfort,
violence/rape fics, Mary Sue, AU, mpreg, BDSM, kinfic,
songfic, etc.).
6. HP fan fiction as progressive political/social tool
for writers and community. Conversely, conservative
trends in the fanon.

Please submit a 250 word abstract (including requests
for audio/visual needs) and your full contact info to
Emily Anderson electronically at
eande001_at_student.ucr.edu
Deadline for Abstracts: January 7, 2005
For more information on the conference, please visit
http://english.ucr.edu/gsea/disjunction/

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Received on Tue Dec 07 2004 - 09:58:30 EST