Fanfic Forensics

Textual Echoes was easily the most enjoyable conference I've ever attended: organization was truly excellent, and having a small group of knowledgeable and open-minded people there made for a very relaxed atmosphere that put me more in mind of an online discussion than an academic conference. I mean that in a good way -it was the first time I was totally at ease speaking my mind at a conference, in the knowledge that pretty much everyone in the room would know what I was talking about and find my concern about point A or B at least potentially relevant. You don't really get that when trying to insert fandom-related topics into conferences with a different central theme.<br /><br />For me personally, the conference was a success as well: the presentation went off almost without a hitch, and the encouraging comments and questions during the conference and later online were incredibly helpful. (Prezi presentation software is still generating lots of amazement. Enjoying the buzz now, because in a year everyone will be used to it.) I talked about Umberto Eco's 'open work' theory, its applicability to fanwork, and how an open work-based theoretical framework could impact fanwork research methodologies in practice. The talk was a Prezi accompanied by a shortened version of this speech text. Very much shortened, at the last minute: presenters were told they wouldn't get dinner if they went over the 20-minute time limit, which was an amazingly effective threat. I spent most of the night frantically cutting pieces of text and was a caffeine-fuelled zombie by the time it was my turn to speak. <br /><br />Quick and industrious writer paceus has posted several detailed pieces about the conference, including one about my presentation. Her summary of my argument and the discussion at her LJ is much more interesting than anything I can write here, so go check it out ;) I've updated the 'methodology' section of the draft thesis text to include the Textual Echoes presentation and some extra tidbits based on comments received since then.

<br />As for the other presentations (abstracts here): most interesting to me were Sophie van de Goor on queer studies applied to yaoi, Annie Mattsson on human-animal transformations in fic, Piotr Siuda on Polish fandom, and Kristina Busse's keynote "Affect and the individual fan", which can be viewed in its entirety on the HUMlab site and is also discussed in detail by paceus. Kristina kindly passed me a copy of her text for Further Contemplation, and I'll discuss it in detail in my next post.