Abstract
The Archive of Our Own, colloquially AO3, is a digital fanfiction archive operated by the American nonprofit Organization for Transformative Works (OTW). What makes AO3 unique as a digital archive, memory project, and subcultural sphere is its use of an affect folksonomy. Users manipulate an advanced search function to navigate millions of stories, and while most of AO3’s parent tags designate specific fandoms, characters, and thematic elements, a scan of its most popular tags reveals that a significant majority pertain to affective tropes. Three tags in particular dominate: “Fluff” (2.9 million stories), “Angst” (2.5 million stories), and “Hurt/Comfort” (1.4 million stories). My project utilizes archival theory, platform studies, fanfiction studies, and affect theory to investigate these tags and a select number of their affective “children”––such as “Whump,” “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat,” and “Pining”––towards an illumination of AO3’s deeply radical archival vocabulary. Affect tags, I argue, are not merely descriptive labels; they also oppose institutionalized modes of reading, writing, remembering, and categorizing. They are, in essence, a uniquely radical method of containing cultural narratives.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Fan Fiction, Digital Archives, New Media, Fan Studies, Popular Culture
