The Physical Discourse of Fan Fiction

Abstract

The research of physical discourse, typical characters, stereotypical gender roles of fan fiction’s texts, based on “Harry Potter”, “Supernatural”, “The Song of Ice and Fire”/“The Game of Throne”, is realized in the article. The author uses Psycholinguistics (Frame Method and Free Associative Experiment), Hermeneutics, some elements of Comparative analysis to describe the main characteristics of the personages and explain peculiarities of their sexual interactions. Fan fiction prose is a kind of virtual mass literature, so it has special features inherent to mass literature in general, for example, comfort reading, typical personages in typical dramatic plot, often – happy end etc. The physical discourse is the most important part of fan fiction’s texts, because the experience of sexual interactions is desirable for a person and it is a base of human’s life. The frame “body” covers not only sex, but also love and security (for example, to be safe in one’s hands). The most frequent nouns of the frame are “hands/fingers” and “eyes/ gaze”. It is important to note that man’s hands and eyes often show his character. But woman’s eyes and hands realize her emotions and feelings. It depends on stereotypical gender roles of mass culture: man has a function to interact with the world, and woman has a function to safe life inside (to give birth), which is confirmed by the free associative experiment. Physical damages (scars, injuries, deceases – for man; rapes – for woman) make the personages more emotionally close to a reader of fan fiction; show an act of initiation (transition from the fandom text to fan fiction text).