Fanfic Forensics

'Fanfic Forensics' is Nele Noppe's Ph.D project at the Japanese Studies department of the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, started at the end of 2008. The basic aim of the project is to conduct a comparison of narrative and visual elements occurring in Japanese and English-language fanwork based on the same original work, 'Harry Potter'. Specifically, this calls for the creation of a theoretical framework specifically designed for the cross-cultural comparison of fanworks, the collection of data on narrative and visual elements in a large number of dōjinshi and fanfic samples, and an analysis of these data within the abovementioned theoretical framework by means of open publication of the data and online discussions with fan authors and scholars.

Any and all comments are immensely appreciated. A few inroads into the project:

• The blog, mirrored on LiveJournal and InsaneJournal, contains progress reports and other research-related musings.
• I'm using Twitter to make list of research ideas to be pursued.
• The menu called 'research data' on the right site of every page links to the thesis text, the bibliography, data sets used to compare elements from dojinshi and fanfics, and other research-related data. I'm publishing these data while they are still incomplete in the spirit of open notebook science.
• This first test of the methodology, a limited comparison narrative elements in a handful of Japanese dojinshi and English-language fanfics centering on the James Potter/Severus Snape pairing, was conducted at very start of the project and is summarized in a paper.
• The flash sitemap below, created using Prezi, showcases all content in a more entertaining fashion. Click objects to zoom in, press space to zoom out, or click and drag to move around. (Full-size version)