Fan fiction and midrash: Making meaning

Authors

  • Rachel Barenblat ALEPH: the Alliance for Jewish Renewal

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2014.0596

Keywords:

Fan community, Fan fiction, Judaism, Midrash, Religion, Torah

Abstract

Just as Jews interpret Torah through midrash (exegetical stories that explore and explain the text), fans interpret contemporary source texts through fan fiction, which functions just as midrash does to sustain community and enable members of that community to join the communal conversation.

Author Biography

Rachel Barenblat, ALEPH: the Alliance for Jewish Renewal

Rabbi Rachel Barenblat holds an MFA from Bennington and rabbinic ordination from ALEPH. She blogs as the Velveteen Rabbi.

Downloads

Published

2014-09-15

Issue

Vol. 17 (2014)

Section

Symposium

License

TWC Nos. 25 onward are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC by 4.0). For an explanation of the journal's reasoning, see the TWC editorial Copyright and Open Access. TWC Nos. 1 through 24 are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, with TWC, not the author, retaining copyright.

Presses whose policies require written permission for reproduction should contact the TWC Editor; such permission is routinely given for no fee.