The student prince: a expansão da série televisiva Merlin através da produção de fanfictions

Abstract

The present work aims to contribute to fan studies by conducting a content analysis based on fanfictions created in the fandom of the TV show Merlin (2008 - 2012), in order to explore how these works can be of use to expand the canon content, disseminate the product and make use of narrative freedom to promote representation. Furthermore, it also seeks to contribute to studies of cultural and communicational processes that have been increasingly discussed in the era of mass communication technologies. In its elaboration, a quantitative and qualitative research of fanfics hosted on the Archive of Our Own website was done, in which The Student Prince was chosen to be unraveled and analyzed using the Content Analysis and Narrative methodology. Through the observation of the platform and from the perspective of several scholars, the monograph makes a historical cut about the culture of the fan, points out the different genres of fanfictions and explains about the narrativity between the works. The analysis was developed following the method of observation, coding and categorization, to exemplify how these works are significant both to fandom and to pop culture itself – offering something different, new and thought-provoking by changing the action, characters and relationships to fix conflicts of the original plot and provide the “something else” that so many fans are looking for.