The Forever Fandom of Harry Potter
Balancing Fan Agency and Corporate Control

Analyzes the Harry Potter fan experience and examines tensions between fans and Warner Bros. in the context of corporate control.

Marianne Martens (Author)

9781108469883, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 June 2019

75 pages, 9 b/w illus.
17.8 x 13 x 0.8 cm, 0.19 kg

Harry Potter fans contribute their immaterial and affective labor in multiple arenas: as peer-to-peer marketers via fan sites and social media; as participants in amateur fan festivals; or as activists for social change. Fans' participation in the Harry Potter universe has contributed to its success. This Element examines how fans' labor might continue to support the franchise for future readers. Starting with the context and theoretical frameworks that support a multidimensional analysis of the Harry Potter fan experience, this Element examines tensions between fans and Warner Bros., as fan participation tests the limits of corporate control.

Introduction
1. Context – the Harry Potter landscape
2. Fans' shaping participation: from fansites to Pottermore
3. Potterfests
4. Fans' active volunteering – the Harry Potter alliance
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Fantasy [FM], Modern & contemporary fiction [post c 1945 FA], Children’s & teenage literature studies [DSY], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: general [DSB], Literary theory [DSA]