Identidade e fandom : análise de práticas sociais de fãs de Harry Potter

Abstract

In a society where consumerism determines subjects’ identity and social integration, it becomes fundamental to identify and study the elements involved in the building of each individual as well as its results in their interpersonal relations given determined contexts. Fan groups have been estabilished throughout the latest years in the most diverse fields following brand trends in different plataforms, all as a result of media convergence. One of the most widely spread products in the cultural industry is the Harry Potter saga, which started as a series of books later becoming a global sensation and, therefore, a multi-platform franchise. In the present dissertation, the Harry Potter phenomenon is analysed based on cultural consumption and emphasis on symbolic consumption. We also intend to comprehend indentity formation derived from "being a fan", associated to the sense of belonging to a comunity or fandom, the moral topics explored in the saga and the influence that they might have over the individual's social interactions. Considering the large technological development and globalization burst observed in recent years, elementary social dimensions, like time and space, are being reconfigured. Change occurs through social relations, in turn being molded by digital technologies. As a result, we present a netnographic analysis, on Facebook, based on Interactional Socioliguistics. The resulting data allows the formation of signification triads, which represents the relations between the speechs (coments), their functions, the linguistic aspects, emic vicions and “self” definition, making it possible to investigate and draw conclusions from the observed events.