Harry Potter Fan Criticism

Through this paper, an analysis of Harry Potter fan forums will be executed. The analysis of this online audience will demonstrate how Harry Potter fans have used online communities, particularly those created through fan fiction and fan forums, as a means of self-expression. Concepts such as Gwenllian-Jones main text, subtext, and reading against the grain, Hill’s participatory culture, and Jenson’s fandom pathologies, and obsession, will demonstrate how Harry Potter fans, or Potterheads as they are referred to, have kept the magic of the books alive, well after the series ended.

According to Gwenllian-Jones, most media messages contain a main text, as well as a subtext. The main text pertains to the actual words, pictures or sounds contained

This is similar to Xena and Gabrielle and how their lesbian love affair was also a preferred reading for fans (Brooker & Jermyn, 2003, p. 169). Just as encoding Xena as heterosexual would be reading against the grain, reading Grindledore as platonic friends is also reading against the grain. Gryffindorseeker says that “it makes so much sense now,” “I feel stupid for not picking up on the clues,” (HPFF, 2007). Gwenllian-Jones suggests that when the producers so blatantly encode a homosexual subtext, it becomes a preferred reading for audience members, (Brooker & Jermyn, 2003, p. 169). It’s only when Rowling admits Dumbledore’s sexual orientation that fans are able to take a step back and say this makes so much sense, and it “certainly could have resulted in love (HPFF, 2007). JLHufflepuff says, “when JKR said that he had been in love with Grindlewald everything clicked into place: that 's why he didn 't kill him when he defeated him. It really made me want to cry for Dumbledore and appreciate his strength of character even more,” (HPFF, 2007). What this shows about audience practices is that fans can perceive and read in to a certain extent, but when they are vindicated, they rejoice and they feel an emotional connection to these characters. These fans feel bad for Dumbledore and many feel sorry for his

21). Fans have created conspiracy theories where Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger, and Tom Felton were dating, but since they presumably haven’t in real life, the next best thing is their fictional characters ( 'The Feltson and Dramione Controversy ', 2011). This particular blog has posted picture of the two individuals ever taken, and a forbidden love affair between the two has been concocted. The pair was spotted at an event together, a press tour for the Harry Potter films, and then there were wild conspiracy theories that this meant they were dating. During the third film, Watson is pictured wearing a green sweater, belonging to Tom Felton, if this isn’t evidence that they are dating, fans don’t know what is. Any interview prior to 2011, any encounter, and any photograph are outlined clearly on this blog. These well supported hard facts and evidence presented before fans on the Internet has convinced them that the two individuals were dating. This blurring between real and fiction is summed up in the final sentences of the blog when they state, “Dramione/Feltson shippers will stick with each other until the end,” (‘The Feltson and Dramione Controversy’, 2011), one ship cannot exist without the other. Both Watson and Felton have essentially become their on-screen characters and fans have projected the real people on to the fictional ones for their own