Fannish discourse communities and the construction of gender in "The X-Files"

Authors

  • Emily Regan Wills School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2013.0410

Keywords:

Fan conversations, Fan fiction

Abstract

Fandoms can constitute discourse communities, where fans make claims about issues of real-world political importance, such as the relationship between gender, power, and autonomy, and where other fans engage with and evaluate those claims. In fan works and fan analyses of Dana Scully in the television show The X-Files, fans pose claims both in discussion spaces and in the creation of fan fiction, and these fannish evaluations and discussions of these fictions analyze those claims.

Author Biography

Emily Regan Wills, School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa

Emily Regan Wills is an assistant professor of American and comparative politics in the School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, where she teaches about transnationalism, migration, discourse, and the politics of the everyday.

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Published

2013-09-15

Issue

Section

Praxis