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Adolescents’ anime-inspired “fanfictions”:

An exploration of Multiliteracies
Kelly Chandler-Olcott, Donna Mahar

The authors explore “fanfiction” as a valid her morning study hall, typing furiously at a com-
puter throughout the period, while Rhiannon’s
literacy practice in the context of the friend Eileen looked on and offered comments.
Multiliteracies framework (New Entitled “The Shrine for Vegeta,” the
Chandler-Olcott teaches at three-page story referenced material
London Group, 1996). Syracuse University. She from two Japanese cartoons and fea-
can be reached at the
university, 200 Huntington tured an obviously autobiographical
Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244, main character, Rhi, whose computer
USA. Mahar teaches at West
Twenty or more middle school students Genesee Middle School and skills allowed her to hack into the school
are eating lunch in Donna’s classroom, as is a doctoral student in server to remove evidence of wrongdo-
is their habit. Some work on group proj- Reading Education at ing (“Indecent exposure...clear...
Syracuse University. This
ects that are due soon; some meet with study was supported by an swearing...clear”) attributed to her and
Donna, their English teacher, for extra Elva Knight Research Grant her comrades—members of a secret
help; others chat about their lives and from the International
Reading Association. detective organization. The piece con-
practice cheerleading routines. A cluster
of students in the back of the room finds cluded with a romantic scene between
a typed document near the printer. Rhi and Wufei, a character from the
“Wow, Ms. Mahar, did you see this?” one girl asks, animated series Gundam Wing.
bringing the pages to Donna. “Do you know who
wrote it?” “It looks like some type of fanfic,” her When Donna returned the story to Rhiannon
friend speculates. “It really has some specific detail.” the next time the study hall met, she asked
Rhiannon to tell her more about it. After some ini-
Such was our introduction to “fanfiction”—fanfic tial embarrassment (“Oh my god! Did you read
for short—a text form described by Jenkins (1992) it?”), Rhiannon began to explain how fanfictions
as the “raiding” of mass culture by fans who use me- worked. Eileen, once again present, offered ideas as
dia texts as the starting point for their own writing. well. Hoping to document the students’ insights
In the midst of collaborative research on adoles- more fully, Donna invited both girls to type some
cents’ personal literacy practices, particularly those notes about fanfics at a classroom computer. They
enhanced by technology, we were on the lookout for obliged, producing a page of dialogue that resem-
genres and texts that adolescents embraced in their bled online chatting in its back-and-forth structure
lives beyond school. Although we were unfamiliar and liberal use of abbreviations and emoticons (a
with the term fanfic then, Donna did know who had typed symbol used to convey feelings). Rhiannon
written the story. She had noticed Rhiannon (stu- opened the conversation with a definition of
dent names are pseudonyms), a seventh grader in fanfics, which Eileen elaborated:

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Rhiannon: OK, well first off.... A Fanfic is like a story of teen zines, and Moje’s (2000) study of the liter-
or a dream or something that just hap- acy practices of youth who considered themselves
pened to pop into your mind. I usually
“gangstas.” We hope that insights about out-of-
write mine about my dreams though and
that is why most people don’t understand school literacy practices that deeply absorb ado-
me.... Except for my best friend, Eileen. lescents may help us devise new ways to make
Eileen: Fanfics are basically a story that you make school literacy more meaningful and engaging.
up about a cartoon character or a video-
game character. They can be any genre.
Some of the fanfics that I have read are
really stupid and goofy, while others are
Anime as a source
tearjerkers, and one Zelda fanfic that I for fanfictions
read had sooo much innuendo in it that I
dropped the fic in mid-page. Fanfics As the excerpts from their dialogue suggest,
about cartoon characters are cool, that’s Rhiannon and Eileen’s fanfictions were connected
because I love cartoons—anime cartoons, to their interest in anime (Japanese animation),
but cartoons just the same. which was, at the time, a new art form to us. Over
time, we learned that a sizable minority of stu-
Later in the dialogue, the girls talked about dents at Donna’s school collected anime-related
fanfictions as an “insider” text form best appreci- videos, comics, and memorabilia. We also became
ated by readers familiar with the source material. more aware of references to anime on the Web
As Rhiannon explained, if the fanfic “is about a and in newspapers. Recently, we were intrigued to
specific cartoon then you need to understand the see an anime-focused article (Kehr, 2002) in as
cartoon in order to be able to understand the fan- mainstream a publication as The New York Times.
fic!” Eileen concurred: “You have to be a weirdo
Although they may not have appeared on
and understand cartoons like Rhi and I.” They
most teachers’ radar screens yet, anime and its
also wrote about relationships between fanfiction
and fan art (drawings inspired by popular me- cousin, manga (Japanese comics), have been big
dia), and Rhiannon mentioned the pride and business in Japan for a number of years. Manga
ownership she felt about her new creations. sales represent nearly 40% of the total number of
books and magazines sold in Japan (Schodt,
Our decision to explore fanfiction writing 1996), and animated features account for about
further was related to our twin desires to under- 50% of all movie ticket sales there (Napier, 2001).
stand youth culture better and to make school lit- Conferences drawing as many as 300,000 atten-
eracy instruction more responsive to learners’ dees are organized around dojinshi, the Japanese
needs. Like Moje (2000), we believe it is impor- term for fanzines (Schodt, 1996). Dojinshi are
tant for teachers and researchers to understand also distributed on CDs and on the Web, making
how “unsanctioned” literacy practices may pro- it easier for non-Japanese fans like Rhiannon and
vide adolescents, especially those who are mar-
Eileen to access material about their favorite tele-
ginalized, with ways of “constructing and
vision shows. One scholar has argued that anime
maintaining thought, identity, and social posi-
represents Japan’s “chief cultural export” (cited in
tion” (p. 252). We see our work in the tradition of
Napier, 2001, p. 5) since anime fan clubs, conven-
other recent literacy studies that took adolescents’
tions, and Web rings have sprung up all over the
interests in media and popular culture seriously,
West, particularly in the United States.
including Alvermann and Hagood’s (2000) in-
quiry into one young man’s music fandom, Lewis As Eileen points out in her dialogue with
and Fabos’s (1999) study of adolescent girls’ use Rhiannon, fanfictions can be written in any style:
of instant message technology, Finders’s (1997) comic, tragic, fantastic, and so forth. The same is
investigation of middle school girls’ consumption true of the Japanese cartoons that inspire these

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written texts. Anime shows range from those for already, our fanfic inquiry was part of a larger
young children to hentai (adult pornography), study of adolescents’ use of digital technologies
with the most popular genres being fantasy, ro- for literacy-related purposes (see Chandler-Olcott
mance, and science fiction (Poitras, 2001). Media & Mahar, 2001). The research took place in a sub-
scholars like Napier (2001) advised caution when urban middle school in upstate New York in the
using schema from American cartoons to under- United States. Kelly, a university-based researcher,
stand anime, however, as Japanese cartoons tend spent one or two days a week observing and in-
to be more complex in their story lines, more so- terviewing students about their technology use
phisticated in their visual style, and less compro- and media interests. She also conducted home
mising in their treatment of sensitive topics than visits with several informants’ families. Donna, an
their American counterparts. This last point was English teacher at the school, gathered data from
underscored by Eileen when she wrote to Kelly daily interactions with students in classes, study
(first author) that anime includes such topics be- hall, and other school activities.
cause “the Japanese have a much better grip on Eileen and Rhiannon, our focal informants,
gays, sex, violence, etc. than we do.” were friends enrolled in Donna’s study hall dur-
We do not provide this introduction to ani- ing the 2000–2001 school year. Our observations
me because we think that the cartoons in and of suggest that both were marginalized from the
themselves are imperative for literacy educators dominant peer culture in their grade—a culture
to consider. Although anime is significant enough whose tone was set by a number of middle- or
for some of Donna’s 2001–2002 students to have upper-middle-class girls who resembled Finders’s
started a lunchtime club to share fanfics and oth- (1997) “social queens” in their concern for ap-
er anime-related texts, it is still of limited interest pearances and use of in-group literacy practices
to many adolescents. For us, what is most intrigu- such as instant messaging and note-passing.
ing about Eileen and Rhiannon’s fanfics tran- Eileen, a middle-class student of European
scends their choice of source material. As American descent, lived with her parents and sis-
researchers interested in how adolescents use var- ter. Perceived by her teachers as an excellent stu-
ious tools (including technology) and draw on dent, she won several academic awards during
various discourses (including those from popular our data collection period. Although Eileen wore
culture) in their literacies, we find the girls’ com- head scarves, patchouli perfume, and Ozzy
posing process as fascinating as the compositions Osbourne T-shirts (which differed from most of
themselves. That said, we realize that Rhiannon her peers who dressed in clothing from fashion
and Eileen’s fandom (Alvermann & Hagood, stores), she participated in school-sponsored ac-
2000) is a primary influence on the writing they tivities such as soccer and track. Her technology-
produce. Without at least a preliminary under- mediated literacy practices included e-mailing
standing of anime as an art or media form, it messages (often with drawings attached) to local
would be difficult for us to analyze their texts in and distant friends; surfing websites related to her
any complexity, or for readers to make sense of interests in anime and heavy-metal music; and
the points we make about the girls’ writing later participating in an anime art-focused mailing list,
in this article. to which she sent scanned copies of her artwork
for feedback. She began writing anime-inspired
fanfictions in April of 2001 after several months
Situating our inquiry of serving as Rhiannon’s illustrator.
Before we move to discussion of particular texts Rhiannon was also of European American
and their composition, we want to provide a bit descent and lived with her mother—a single
more context for our work. As we mentioned parent—and a younger sister. Described by a

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teacher as a “good student” but one “who does whose emphasis on the effects of technological
not open up,” she spent most of her time pursu- change seemed relevant to our study. The book
ing activities with her church group and using the and an earlier article (see New London Group,
Internet. Because she had Internet access through 1996) were collaboratively authored by a group of
WebTV, not a computer, her online activities were literacy scholars from the United States, Great
easily monitored by her mother, who took an ac- Britain, and Australia. They called their proposed
tive role in supervising them. Her technology- framework “Multiliteracies” because the term ref-
mediated literacy practices included e-mailing erenced two key elements of their vision: (a) “the
messages to online friends, participating in chat multiplicity of communications channels and
rooms and online role-playing games, and devel- media” and (b) “the increasing salience of cultural
oping Internet homepages that included a and linguistic diversity” (Cope & Kalantzis, p. 5)
“shrine” (a fan-developed website devoted to one in people’s daily lives. As these authors saw it, ex-
anime character) and a Hypertext Markup isting theories of literacy teaching and learning
Language help site for kids. In September 2000, were no longer adequate in what one of the
she shared printed copies of her fanfics with us; group’s members, Allan Luke, called “New Times”
later that year, she began to post her writing on in this journal (Luke & Elkins, 1998).
her webpages.
Before we discuss some of the New London
After we discovered Rhiannon’s first fanfic Group’s other premises, we need to say that while
and began to talk to her and Eileen about it, we we see Multiliteracies as a practical framework rel-
decided to investigate fan writing more system- evant to teachers’ and researchers’ daily work, its
atically. To this end, we kept notes during con- technical language and theoretical complexity
versations with both girls. We annotated copies were initially daunting. We found ourselves need-
of fanfictions that they gave or e-mailed us, and ing to read chapters multiple times, often stop-
we downloaded others from Rhiannon’s home- ping in the middle to talk about a topic or write
pages, for which she provided the Web address- notes. We explored the concepts further in low-
es. Near the end of our analysis, Donna enlisted stakes, informal contexts, beginning with memos
several anime fans who were a year behind to each other about connections we saw to our
Eileen and Rhiannon in school to examine some study. Donna tested her understandings in a pres-
of the girls’ fanfictions with her and explain ref- entation to peers in a graduate seminar, and we
erences and genre conventions we might not made several references to the framework in a
otherwise have understood. At Eileen’s recom- piece we wrote on digital genres (Chandler-
mendation, we also explored the Anime Web Olcott & Mahar, 2001). Had we not used these
Turnpike (http://www.anipike.com), a clearing- strategies to construct meaning with the texts, we
house website including links to news groups, might have abandoned a powerful tool for think-
image galleries, plot synopses, fanfictions, and ing about our work. We urge you to consider us-
shrines. From these activities, we developed a ing some of these meaning-making strategies if
deeper understanding of the girls’ anime fan- you have not encountered the Multiliteracies
dom and of the place that fanfictions held in framework before, and we hope you will choose
that fandom. to read about the framework in the original.
Among the numerous points that resonated
for us in the framework was the authors’ con-
The Multiliteracies framework tention that schools and other dominant institu-
Around the same time the girls introduced us to tions have historically privileged language,
fanfics, we were also reading and discussing particularly written literacy, over all other modes
Multiliteracies (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000), a text of communication, thereby neglecting the

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possibilities of those other modes. According to Fanfictions: Patterns

Cope and Kalantzis (2000),
and themes
Not only does this represent a reduction of expressive Our inquiry into Rhiannon and Eileen’s fanfic-
possibility. It is also increasingly anachronistic given tion writing yielded a number of patterns and
recent social as well as technological trends in our themes. First, the girls reported multiple purposes
communications environment which extend the range for composing their fanfictions. Writing was seen
and technical integration of multimodal communica- as a way to have fun, exercise one’s imagination,
tion...[and allow] the unprecedented integration of vi- and avoid boredom. Rhiannon also characterized
sual and linguistic design. (p. 217) it as “stress relief.” What they were less likely to
say explicitly, but what seemed clear to us, was
The New London Group proposed that the that fanfiction writing also helped to develop and
construction of meaning should be seen as a solidify relationships with various friends, online
process of “Designing,” one that draws on a range or otherwise. Whether they were sharing their
texts with each other—or, as was the case with
of what they called “Available Designs” to create
some of Rhiannon’s stories, writing their friends
“Redesigned” texts. Available Designs used as
into the narratives in a more literal sense—fanfics
resources in this process included the “linguistic,” appeared to serve as “social glue” (Beach, 2000, p.
“visual,” “audio,” “gestural,” “spatial,” and 9) for them.
“multimodal”—the last representing connections
It was not surprising, then, that Rhiannon
between or among the other Designs.
and Eileen’s primary audiences for their fanfic-
tions appeared to be themselves and a few trusted
The outcome of Designing is a new meaning, some- friends and family members. In her written dia-
thing through which meaning-makers remake them-
logue with Eileen, Rhiannon characterized fanfic-
selves. It is never a reinstantiation of one Available
tion writing as a private pursuit, one that was
Design or even a simple recombination of Available
“kinda fun when no one is looking,” and she
Designs; the Redesigned can be variously creative or
talked about Eileen being her best reader because
reproductive in relation to the resources available for
they were such good friends. Eileen sent first
meaning-making available in Available Designs. But it
is never a simple reproduction (as the myths of stan-
drafts of her stories to a small circle of confi-
dards and transmission pedagogy would have us be-
dantes including her sister, Rhiannon, and a
lieve), nor is it simply creative (as the myths of friend from another school who, as she put it,
individual originality and personal voice would have “also likes writing stories, though hers are about
us believe). (New London Group, 1996, p. 76) dragons and stuff.”
Sometimes, however, the Internet provided
These ideas were useful to us in analyzing the potential for a wider audience than intimate
Rhiannon and Eileen’s fanfics because they ac- friends and family. For example, Eileen wrote a
knowledged composition as a social process and fanfiction about Lina and Phibrizzo—the heroine
and villain, respectively, from the Slayers fantasy
accounted for popular culture as a source of
series—at the invitation of a boy she met online
Available Designs. As Multiliteracies contributor
after discovering his Phibrizzo shrine on the Web.
Carmen Luke (2000) pointed out, the framework Around the same time, Rhiannon began to post
also considered the influence multimedia tech- several fanfics on her webpages, including one in-
nologies might have on adolescents’ meaning- spired by Slayers and another influenced by the
making “beyond the classroom walls and into the video game turned movie Final Fantasy. While
borderless world of Internet resources” (p. 82). the counters on these sites indicate that they did

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not receive many visits, Rhiannon did report that work for them, they also suggest ways that some-
they were visited by friends she met online who one more experienced with those technologies
lived as far away as North Carolina and New could have facilitated their composition process.
Mexico in the United States.
Noticeably absent from Eileen and
Rhiannon’s fanfic audience were their teachers.
Fanfictions and the
Aside from Eileen’s submission of lyrics from an Multiliteracies framework
anime theme song for a poetry class taught by her
The patterns in the previous section became ap-
English student teacher, we have no evidence that
parent to us as we engaged in inductive, “bottom-
either girl brought her anime fandom into any up” analysis of our data. Returning to those data
formal school activity. Nonetheless, both girls with the more “top-down” lens of Multiliteracies
maintained that their personal writing was more focused our attention on new issues. In particu-
important to them and higher in quality than the lar, the New London Group’s (1996) framework
work they completed for class. When Kelly asked helped us to consider fanfictions in a broader
Eileen if she could see samples of her school writ- context—as texts influenced by cultural artifacts
ing, Eileen assented but was quick to add, “they and social discourses—rather than simply two
aren’t as good as my fics.” Likewise, Rhiannon re- girls’ idiosyncratic literacy practices. Three con-
ported devoting far more time and energy to her cepts from the framework were most useful in
fanfics than she did to school assignments she this process: multimodality, intertextuality, and
dismissed as “the essay part of my writing.” hybridity.
At times, however, it appears that both girls
could have benefited from the assistance that
Multimodality
contact with their teachers or classmates might
have provided. Their compositions were some- Multimodality, or the integration of various
times limited by the tools that were available to Designs such as visual, linguistic, and audio in
them and by their skill with those tools. For in- one text, is a key concept in the Multiliteracies
stance, Eileen wrote one fanfic entirely within framework. According to the New London Group
e-mail because she did not know how, at that (1996), all texts are multimodal to some degree,
time, to compose within a word-processing pro- even those that appear to be produced in a single
gram and then paste the text into an e-mail mes- mode. As Cope and Kalantzis (2000) pointed out,
sage to share it with others later. She wrote her even a traditional print text
four-page story over several days; each time she
concluded work for that session, she had to mail is linked to visual [meaning], from the business of
the story to herself to save it. Working within a handwriting itself...all the way through to the heavily
word processor would have made it easier for her designed pages of desktop publishing in which fonts,
point sizes, leading, kerning, bolding and italics are all
to add and revise text as she went. In a similar
integral to the grammar of the words. (p. 211)
fashion, Rhiannon used two different e-mail ac-
counts to compose her fanfics because one of the
accounts allowed her to post her writing more Nonetheless, some texts integrate multiple modes
easily to her website than the other. However, she more centrally than others. Attending to this con-
did not figure out how to eliminate evidence of cept while analyzing the girls’ fanfiction helped us
to realize that the stories could be seen as multi-
the message to herself, so the header from the
modal on a number of levels.
e-mail remained at the top of the first page. While
these examples point out the girls’ resourceful- The girls’ stories were sometimes illustrated.
ness in devising ways to make the technologies For example, Rhiannon asked Eileen, considered

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by both girls to be the better artist, to create a flavor of that conversation and Kelly’s surprise
piece of fan art for a brief, Sailor Moon-inspired when she realized that Eileen’s fan-related reading
fanfic describing the wedding of Serena, the and viewing practices were far less like traditional
show’s heroine. The two modes worked well print literacy than we had assumed.
together, as Eileen’s pen drawing provided detail
about the character that Rhiannon’s writing did One of the comics on the site we are browsing has
not. Rhiannon herself paid attention to color, Japanese characters in the dialogue bubbles, NOT
images, and animation (elements connected to English letters. This is the first time I have noticed
visual and spatial Designs) in her webpage con- this! “This is one that never happened,” Eileen says.
“These are Chesta and Gatty in the background.” We
struction. She even left a note in one site’s update
establish that it is not uncommon for fans of this type
section that demonstrated her awareness of how a of anime to look at comic strips with no clear transla-
lack of consideration for visual and spatial ele- tion.
ments might interfere with visitors’ pleasure Kelly: “How do you know what’s happening?”
while reading her work: “Wow, I got one of my Eileen: “You can kind of look at the pictures, and she
stories up, it’s not done yet, but it’s got enough to tells you.”
read. :) I’ll work on it! Very soon!! *grins* Hope Kelly: “Who tells you?”
you enjoy it! By the way, it’s a .txt file, so you Eileen: “The person who’s posted the stuff.”
won’t ruin your eyes reading it! :) Have fun!” There is a brief summary of the strip on the first page
Rhiannon had struggled with fanfics in other for- of the site, where you choose where to go next, before
mats, so she took care to make her story reader- you link to the pictures. Apparently, this is written—
friendly. Her use of a smiley-face emoticon and mediated?—by the site author.
an action verb set off by stars (a chat room con-
vention meant to signal physical activity) also By integrating her prior knowledge of ani-
suggests her awareness that a text drawing prima- me with the images and verbal scaffolding pro-
rily of linguistic Design would benefit from the vided by the Web designer, Eileen was able to
inclusion of other Designs as well. construct meaning in sophisticated ways.
In addition to the multimodal qualities dis- Although she relied heavily on visual and spatial
cernible in the girls’ texts, the process that led to modes highlighted by the Multiliteracies frame-
their production was multimodal. Unlike, for ex- work, she also used comprehension strategies
ample, Star Trek enthusiasts with every episode of such as inference and visualization that are highly
the original series on tape (Jenkins, 1992), Eileen valued in transactions with traditional print texts
and Rhiannon found it difficult to gather a “com- (Dole, Duffy, Roehler, & Pearson, 1991).
plete” set of data about their favorite shows.
Because anime has not been wholly embraced by
American audiences, the girls needed to construct
Intertextuality
their fanfictions with information from multiple Eileen’s transactions with these websites also
media, including Japanese manga, cartoons on demonstrated her understanding of intertextuali-
network television, videotapes, and fan- ty, a term referring to relationships and references
constructed websites. The fragmentary nature of between and among texts, which represents an-
the girls’ knowledge became obvious to us during other key Multiliteracies concept. As the New
one computer-mediated interview Kelly conduct- London Group (1996) explained, any text being
ed with Eileen. As they talked, Eileen navigated to Designed is “linked” to “one or more series
several websites devoted to Escaflowne, a series (‘chains’) of past texts” (p. 75). As a form, fanfic-
that had only aired on television in the United tions make intertextuality visible because they
States for, according to Eileen, “about a month.” rely on readers’ ability to see relationships be-
This excerpt from Kelly’s field notes captures the tween the fan-writer’s stories and the original

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media sources. Intertextuality informed Eileen’s tions to an ongoing, intertextual conversation

decision to cast Chesta, a relatively minor figure about such issues as friendship, loyalty, power,
in the Escaflowne series, as a major character in a and sexuality. As we learned more about anime
story she wrote that also featured Hitomi, a 15- and fanfictions, we, too, were able to make more
year-old girl whose interests in track and field intertextual connections as we read their stories
and tarot cards resembled Eileen’s own interests. and to see when they manipulated and trans-
Her piece relied on readers’ knowledge, con- formed established text forms to create new ones.
structed from previous texts, that it would be sur-
prising for Chesta to be kind to Hitomi, given his
status as her enemy’s subordinate. Another exam- Hybridity
ple of intertextuality can be seen in stories The process we just described has been called
Rhiannon wrote combining characters from hybridity, which is a term that refers to the cre-
more than one show—a common practice in the ation of new meanings and new genres through
fan community that Jenkins (1992) called a “cross the Design process. According to Cope and
over” (p. 170). Kalantzis (2000),
In addition to these textual relationships
with the original anime shows, both girls drew on The many layers of identity, the many aspects of expe-
rience, and the many discourses that represent the
a variety of discourses about heterosexual rela-
Available Designs of meaning are ever being related,
tionships in their fanfics. In Rhiannon’s story, combined, and recombined.... Every Designing picks
“The New Mazokus,” the heroine, Moon Tear, has and chooses from all the bits in the world of Available
been chosen to be queen because of her heritage Designs and puts it back together in a way it has never
and power, and she is accompanied and guarded quite been before. (p. 205)
by her faithful “knightess,” a gender-bending twist
on the conventions of most quest narratives. By In their fanfictions, the girls created hybrid
the end of the episode, however, Moon Tear’s texts that wove together various discourses and
agency has been much reduced. Rezo and genres. Rhiannon’s story, “The New Mazokus,” for
Koppi—two male characters from the Slayers— example, blended elements from fantasy, science
fight over who will be her consort. Rhiannon’s fiction, and “teen buddy” genres, in addition to
teaser for the story’s next installment does not borrowing generously from romance. This hybrid
even mention Moon Tear: “Will Rezo know what text may have allowed Rhiannon to do more
Koppi’s plan is, before he executes it? Find out in identity work around female heterosexuality, par-
the next chapter of The New Mazokus.” While, on ticularly related to issues of power in relation-
some level, the story probably represents ships, than a more homogeneous text might have.
Rhiannon’s personal attempt to work through
It is important to note, however, that the
what it means to be female in a male-dominated
girls’ hybrid fanfictions diverged in some impor-
world, she does so with reference to conflicting
tant ways from genres traditionally privileged in
discourses about gender and relationships that
school. For example, unlike most print texts,
play out in many texts—both media and print—
anime television shows are serialized, with stories
beyond her own.
unfolding bit by bit, episode by episode.
Viewing rhetorical moves like these from Borrowing that convention, many fanfictions be-
the perspective of the Multiliteracies framework gin in medias res, as does the following story by
helped us to appreciate how complicated, and Eileen.
even sophisticated, the girls’ fanfics often were.
Instead of writing Eileen and Rhiannon’s texts off Hitomi sobbed. She was cold, wet, and lost. Ever since
as derivative, we began to see them as contribu- she had fallen off the Escaflowne three days ago, she

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had been wandering the countryside looking for shel- In such a setting, a more self-consciously “hybrid”
ter, but had found none. Her leg was swollen and text like a fanfic would serve the writer poorly.
bruised—probably broken in the fall. She limped
slowly and painfully forward, hoping for a scrap of
food or a shelter. It was getting late, so she decided to
lay down under a tree for the night. The rain soaked Why teachers need to think
through her clothes, making her shiver and cough.
The raindrops began to fade into nothing as her eye-
about fanfictions
lids closed. In our opinion, this last example points to one of
several reasons why the lack of knowledge Eileen
Nowhere in the pages that follow does Eileen pro- and Rhiannon’s teachers had about their fanfic-
vide any back story for the events she mentions tion meant lost opportunities for literacy learn-
here; she does not explain what the Escaflowne is ing. The dissimilarities between the girls’ fanfics
or why Hitomi fell from it. She offers little physical and English language arts practice essays might
have offered an interesting entry point for discus-
description of her protagonist. She simply plunges
sion about how different communicative contexts
Hitomi into a dungeon, where the girl comes into
can narrow the range of Available Designs to
conflict with another barely-introduced character,
draw on. Such conversations might help students
Dilandau, and the action proceeds.
to be more metacognitive about their composi-
It would be easy to assume that these omis- tions, making it easier for them to decide, for ex-
sions were due to Eileen’s lack of knowledge ample, when certain kinds of intertextuality
about story grammar and character development, might be called for.
but our discussions with her suggest that this was
We see a number of other ways that ac-
not true. Instead, her decisions reflected an un-
knowledging fanfictions—or other text forms
derstanding of the fanfic genre and an awareness
privileged by students but marginalized by
of the background readers would bring to the
teachers—within formal learning communities
text. Someone unfamiliar with Escaflowne might can increase student engagement and achieve-
indeed have struggled to follow the plot, given the ment in literacy. While we would not recommend
information she provided, but Eileen knew that teaching fanfiction as a formal genre in school—
this kind of person was not likely to read her sto- one that every student would therefore need to
ry in the first place. Her text, and the choices she produce—we do see other ways that students’ in-
made about it, challenged the prevailing cultural terest in and skill with these texts could be tapped
model—Gee’s (2001) term for everyday theories productively in classroom settings. For one, fan-
shared by people in a particular discourse fictions could be included in the range of texts
community—about successful writing that was teachers consider for diagnostic purposes in order
privileged in her school (indeed in most second- to get a sense of what individuals can do as read-
ary schools). In classes preparing them for the ers and writers, as well as what they value. We
state’s English language arts examination, both wonder what might happen if teachers invited
girls were encouraged to produce texts that had a students to bring in examples of their best per-
clear beginning, middle, and end and were devel- sonal writing at the beginning of the school year
oped with details for an audience (e.g., teachers and promised, as part of that invitation, not to
or test scorers) with whom it was not appropriate grade those pieces but rather to examine them for
to assume shared understandings. Everything strengths to build on and as a way to get to know
needed to be made explicit, and the purpose for learners better. Eileen and Rhiannon were both
the task was to replicate as closely as possible the convinced that their fanfictions represented their
model texts provided in state standards docu- talents as writers better than other compositions,
ments and commercial test preparation materials. but they were equally convinced—perhaps rightly

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Adolescents’ anime-inspired “fanfictions”: An exploration of Multiliteracies

so, given the norms of the school they attended— Despite these complexities, it seems signifi-
that their anime-inspired stories were not cant that both Rhiannon and Eileen were so forth-
welcome in the classroom. Had they been invited coming about their fanfiction with us and that
to share and explain those texts in school, their Eileen, in particular, sought our feedback. While
teachers would have had considerably more data the girls’ willingness to share may have been relat-
about them as writers or—to be more precise, ed to the fact that neither of us taught in their
given the Multiliteracies framework—Designers. English class, we do believe that our honest inter-
est played a role as well. We deliberately posi-
Examining fanfictions in this way might
tioned ourselves as learners with Eileen and
reposition some adolescents as capable literacy
Rhiannon, a stance that Alvermann, Moon, and
learners in their teachers’ eyes, as was the case
Hagood (1999) recommended for teachers who
with Dan, a high school student struggling with hope to incorporate popular culture in the class-
print literacy profiled by O’Brien (2001). When room. That Donna has been subsequently success-
allowed to construct a Web-based documentary ful in eliciting talk with her own students about
of a favorite rock star, Dan showed himself to be similar personal literacy practices suggests that
“adept at taking his ideas and feelings and repre- texts like fanfictions need not remain “hidden”
senting them through authoring choices” that (Finders, 1997) by all learners from all teachers.
drew on various Designs including audio, visual,
and spatial. The documentary showed O’Brien We did learn a great deal when we allowed
that “Dan, who was positioned as incompetent in the girls to serve as our guides through the unfa-
miliar territory of fanfiction writing and anime
terms of a traditional definition of literacy that
fandom. Considering the girls’ fanfiction writing
privileges print, is articulate, creative, and even
in the light of the Multiliteracies framework
masterful with media literacies.” The same may be
helped us to see those texts as more complex—as
true for fanfiction writers if their teachers come
well as more worthy of consideration in academic
to their texts with an appreciation of intertextual-
contexts—than we had previously realized. At the
ity, multimodality, and hybridity, all of which re-
same time, considering Multiliteracies with fan-
quire Designers to use Available Resources in
fictions as a test case—and with the girls as key
complex ways.
informants—helped us to develop a sense of that
We offer these suggestions with the knowl- framework’s practical implications. By working
edge that “importing” adolescents’ personal lit- back and forth between the theory and the data
eracies and preferred texts into school is far from (in itself a form of intertextuality), we began to
simple. We worry, for example, about the poten- broaden our conceptions of literacy and to con-
tial of classroom instruction to strip pleasure template, as the New London Group (1996) rec-
from pursuits that obviously mean a good deal to ommended, “classroom teaching and curriculum”
adolescents. For some young people, part of fan- that increasingly “engage with students’ own ex-
fiction writing’s appeal may be its unsanctioned periences and discourses” (p. 88).
nature and its inscrutability to adults. Rhiannon
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