ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 builds upon these understandings of emotion as a system of exchange and a system that can and often does reify damaging hegemonic expectations by exploring the role that family plays within these emotioned/emotional systems of online fanfiction. Literacy studies teach that family plays a central role in the development of reading and writing. Furthermore, writing and class studies have shown that family plays a central role in the school experiences of working-class students of colour. However, while family has been theorised in educational scholarship, most of this work has focused on childhood education. Moreover, both fan studies and affect theory have often overlooked the role of family. Therefore, this chapter brings these three fields together in order to better theorise how family influences fannish practices. Through a series of interviews, textual analysis of stories, fan-annotated stories, author’s notes, etc., the chapter explores how family fits into the development of fannish practices and identities and in the creative choices made in fanwriting.
