Fandom transliteracies on Tumblr: Glee fans and the produsage of hypermodal texts

• Grant number: 11/22249-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2012
• End date: December 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Applied Linguistics
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo El Khouri Buzato
• Grantee: Rafael Salmazi Sachs
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research aims to describe and analyze different kinds of practices and textual/discursive productions by fans of the American television series Glee on the Tumblr blogging system, which easily affords the combination and chaining of hypermodal resources, making it a relevant locus for the practice (and the analysis) of transliteracies. Assuming that the fan is a "produser", according to the discussions by Axel Bruns, and that the fandom is an affinity space, as defined by James Gee, the study is theoretically grounded on Jay Lemke's theories of hypermodality and transmediality, on Rick Iedema's perspective of resemiotization processes and, finally, on Sue Thomas and colleagues' conception of transliteracies. The objectives of the study include (i) identifying the ways through which Glee fans employ Tumblr's affordances for the production and circulation of posts based on media content related to the series, in order to participate on specific transliteracies, and (ii) surveying and describing the resemiotization processes involved in the creation of those transmedia posts from the original text to the published post, taking stock of the changes made to the meanings along the way. The intended results should provide theoretical and empirical ground for future studies involving fan literacies on the internet, with a view to substantiating educational innovations based on multiple literacies.