Together in Engelsfors. Social fiction use in digital fan communities

Fan cultures are a widespread phenomenon in social media and have over the last decade become an increasingly important context for readers to meet and discuss literature. The dissertation project Tillsammans i Engelsfors, is the first major study of Swedish fan communities about Swedish literature, specifically the Engelfors trilogy by Sara Bergmark Elfgren and Mats Strandberg (2011-2013). The project identifies a popular cultural practice that today engages more and more, especially young readers and audiences to take an active approach to the culture they consume. The thesis deals with material published in the 2010s, and thus the study captures the new forms of communication and social interaction made possible by digitalization and especially social media. The sharing of users' own texts, images and films constitutes an important structure. Within fan culture, there is a particular tradition of disseminating one's own creative works of art (such as fan art, fan fiction and fanvids), created with inspiration from the fictional world. This practice has benefited from the digital infrastructure. In addition to a more general mapping of communicative patterns, the thesis project also includes close readings of the fans' own artworks and collective fiction creation. The readings are based on fan-specific genres such as "shipping" and "fluff", but also include perspectives such as fictionality, literariness, emotional readings, and types of girls and femininity.