Fan Culture

What began as a devoted readership to the vampire love story, developed into a common experience amongst a community who created shared meanings and identities, which ultimately developed into another subset of fan culture. “Twi-hard,” fans of the famed Twilight series, are known to be some of the most loyal fans. Ever since the series first launched as books and later released as films, the vampire craze became a popular product of our consumer culture. Why are “Twi-hard” fans a particular type of audience with such eccentric characteristics? I firmly believe that is because they are attracted into both the cinematic world of sci-fi romance and the fantastical world of fiction novels.

In this essay I am going to look at approaches to fan activity and fandom. In order to understand how and why the Twilight craze began, I will investigate fandom and the interest, focusing on the work of Henry Jenkins and Barbara Klinger. Once I have established this initial section, I will then discuss my chosen case study, which is to demonstrate a textual analysis of the representation of Twilight from a fan site I once participated in, titled His Golden Eyes. By using these texts, I aim to provide an in-depth analysis of why this popular media form has become a cultural phenomenon and explore in depth fan fiction and what makes Twilight fans so passionate.

Before discussing and analyzing why Twilight has such as strong fan culture it is important to define what fandom is. Almost everyone is a fan of something. A fan can be described as being someone who obsesses over something. There are many different types of fandoms: those of movies, television shows, comic books, etc. Fans most commonly “quote their favorite lines or lyrics.” (Baker & Romano, 2014) However, the inner workings of the fandom rarely differ. Most fans are especially focused on the characters being played, their roles in the story and how the plot will eventually unfold is what draws their attention and...