Week 7: “Fan Fiction”

Use an example to explain Jenkins’ claim that fans are ‘poachers’.

Fans are claimed to be ‘poachers’ because they attempt to integrate representations within their own social experience. A good example to Jenkins’ claim would be the advent of fan fiction. I was left quite disgruntled and dissatisfied when the American sitcom ‘How I Met Your Mother‘ did not end the way I wanted it to. As such, quite a handful of people who shared my views instead developed an alternate ending to the series, an ending which provides ‘proper’ or ‘satisfying’ closure, or in De Certeau‘s words, “reappropriating it”.

Jenkins, H 2006, ‘Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten: Fan Writing as Textual Poaching’, in Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture, New York UP, New York & London, pp. 37-60