A Study of Fantastic Fiction Fan’s Reading Behavior
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Chen, Yi-Chi
Abstract
At 2007, Harry Potter, the series of bestseller had ended, but the reading fashion of fantastic fictions has been still growing. Harry Potter sold like hot cakes, and it indirectly promotes the general mood of reading. The genre of fantastic fiction attracts numerous readers to travel into the dream world. What kind of magic power fantasy holds that make people lose their minds? This question must be answered by the fans of fantastic fictions. However, these people are invisible patrons, and the study of this group is a gap in the fan study and the reading research. In order to better realize fantastic fictions and their fans, this thesis combines studies of fantasy with studies of fan and reading research. The study aims to find answers to respond these questions: Who are fantastic fiction fans? How to become a fantastic fiction fan? What are they doing? Why are they fanatical about fantastic fictions? The data collection is done through Internet, and the subjects are fans who had tried to write fantastic fictions or announce their reflection. After initial survey, 20 research targets are selected for semi-structured interviews. The questions of interview are designed to follow the structure of the purpose of this study, and are divided into three parts: reading experience（the history of individual reading and it’s effect）, reading behavior（the reading motive and the reading mode）, viewpoints of fantastic fiction fans（about fantasy and fans themselves）. Generalizing from the data collected from the survey and the interview, the conclusions are as follows:.Fantastic fiction fans are mostly between 20 to 30 years old, with same proportion between two genders. They generally have higher education and most of them are students. In addition to reading fantasy a lot, they enjoy in fancying contents of fictions in their daily life, or fancying into the world of books. Beside these, they have no obvious characteristics..Most of them became interested in fantastic fictions before senior high school, and they were in touch with fantasy by children’s reading or multimedia..They are neutral or positive for the influence of fantasy..They generally express that the whys and wherefores to love fantastic fictions are that fantasies have unlimited possibility, looking forward to another world, and escaping the real life..Reasons for reading are that browsing at bookstores, recommended books by friends, book reviews or information from internet, and new books of authors who they love..The way of getting books are mostly through buying..Most of them are used to share their ideas after reading, and their reasons are that hope to get identifications, express feelings, exchange different points of view, and record their lives..The frequency of reading fantasy is unstable, and it changes according to leisure time. When the frequency reduces stage by stage, fans maybe decide to come off, but they would still identify themselves with the genre..They aren’t enthusiastic about joining fan’s organization, and talk about fantasy by groups of several friends. Most of them do not disclose their identity as fantastic fans at their daily life.0.Their motives of creating are divided into two parts: they are spontaneous to satisfy desires of creative writing, or stimulated to voice personal impression to fill in vacancies of texts.1.Major elements of fantasy are the second world and self-growth. Both fancy and the framework of circumstances are important. Fans normally prefer original writings and works that reflects certain level of reality.2.Fans hope to broaden their view of reading and that domestic fantasy writings could flourish. At the end, this thesis brings up some practical suggestions for publishers, writhers, the academic community, libraries and readers. For further research, it is advised to enhance depth using focus group or conduct an in-depth case study; or emphasize variation and general principles by a larger survey; or study to the other genres.
Subjects
Fantasy
Fantastic fiction
Fan
Reading behavior
Type
thesis
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