Research Abstract: Synthesizing the BS
This is a research abstract. It's basically the cliff-notes of my project. I sent it in as part of my application for a conference at the University of Michigan. I'm afraid that is sounds like I have it out for heterosexuality. Which I don't. Mostly. Also, I had to make it sound like I've already written the paper, but all I have is the abstract. Oh well, it sounds conclusive.
Subaltern Voices in Slash: Comparative Relationship Constructions in Harry Potter Novels and Slash Fanfiction
Harry Potter is undoubtedly the most popular contemporary literary phenomenon; however, these novels disturbingly perpetuate stereotypical gender trait expectations and unbalanced relationship power dynamics which many readers find disconcerting, or worse, alienating. However, online fanfiction, or fan-written texts set within an established universe, allows marginalized groups, who have been excluded from these dominant narratives, to produce alternate narratives based on their own sociocultural perspectives. My research focuses on a sub-genre in this tradition known as slash. Slash is a term utilized to designate fanfiction foregrounding homosexual romantic relationships.
This paper analyzes the construction of gender and power dynamics by comparing the heterosexual relationship between Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour in the Harry Potter novels and the homosexual relationship between Remus Lupin and Sirius Black in Harry Potter slash fanfiction. I have found that the novels depict the relationship between Bill and Fleur as stereotypically gender normative and thus characterized by strikingly unbalanced power dynamics. In contrast, the slash fanfiction relationship between Remus and Sirius tends to be characterized by a marked absence of cultural gender expectations, which allows the characters to relate to each other as human subjects, rather than categorical objects. This respect for individual subjectivity fosters predominantly egalitarian relationship power dynamics.
In this paper, I argue that slash serves several vital cultural functions. For the queer community, it represents a literary genre wherein homosexual couples can be foregrounded without the ghettoization that would normally stigmatize it as exclusively “gay” literature, thus granting homosexuals a cultural space in which they might inhabit the position of universal subjectivity. For society as a whole, fanfiction represents a democratization of the literary medium, in that it creates a space for subaltern groups to challenge the dominant narratives of the culturally-normative literary hegemony.
Subaltern Voices in Slash: Comparative Relationship Constructions in Harry Potter Novels and Slash Fanfiction
Harry Potter is undoubtedly the most popular contemporary literary phenomenon; however, these novels disturbingly perpetuate stereotypical gender trait expectations and unbalanced relationship power dynamics which many readers find disconcerting, or worse, alienating. However, online fanfiction, or fan-written texts set within an established universe, allows marginalized groups, who have been excluded from these dominant narratives, to produce alternate narratives based on their own sociocultural perspectives. My research focuses on a sub-genre in this tradition known as slash. Slash is a term utilized to designate fanfiction foregrounding homosexual romantic relationships.
This paper analyzes the construction of gender and power dynamics by comparing the heterosexual relationship between Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour in the Harry Potter novels and the homosexual relationship between Remus Lupin and Sirius Black in Harry Potter slash fanfiction. I have found that the novels depict the relationship between Bill and Fleur as stereotypically gender normative and thus characterized by strikingly unbalanced power dynamics. In contrast, the slash fanfiction relationship between Remus and Sirius tends to be characterized by a marked absence of cultural gender expectations, which allows the characters to relate to each other as human subjects, rather than categorical objects. This respect for individual subjectivity fosters predominantly egalitarian relationship power dynamics.
In this paper, I argue that slash serves several vital cultural functions. For the queer community, it represents a literary genre wherein homosexual couples can be foregrounded without the ghettoization that would normally stigmatize it as exclusively “gay” literature, thus granting homosexuals a cultural space in which they might inhabit the position of universal subjectivity. For society as a whole, fanfiction represents a democratization of the literary medium, in that it creates a space for subaltern groups to challenge the dominant narratives of the culturally-normative literary hegemony.