Texts by J. Rowling’s fans as means of conveying subcultural values

Abstract

The article covers the process of evolution of J. Rowling’s fans’ verbal creative work. The research is devoted to a variety of texts made by fans including forms of Internet-lore and fanfiction, a phenomenon close both to literature and folklore by nature, a kind of narratives developing on the Internet and highly popular with avid admirers of the Harry Potter series. The author has been observing the subculture of Harry Potter fans since 2003 and has made a number of important conclusions about the nature of fanfiction, its genres, its connection to the original books by J. Rowling on the level of interpreting mythological archetypes and attitudes of fanfiction author’s to Rowling’s style and set of values. The article regards the above mentioned problems following the author’s earlier thesis and focuses on the modern stage in the development of fans’ texts including memes and demotivators posted by users of social networking services and conveying the values already expressed in the older form of subcultural creative work—fanfiction.