Shared Passions, Shared Compositions: Online Fandom Communities and Affinity Groups as Sites for Public Writing Pedagogy

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the rhetorical behaviors and attendant compositions of fandoms across spaces to make pedagogical suggestions for the incorporation of fandom activities into the writing classrooms. I look at fandoms as a representative for online communities and/or affinity groups, to examine how shared identities and experiences are constructed within online spaces specifically through the creation and circulation of multimodal compositions. Ultimately, I propose a new way of positioning public writing and expanding its potential role in the composition classroom. Building upon work on public writing arguing for the incorporation of the mundane into public writing pedagogy and scholarship in writing studies, rhetoric, and digital media studies on fandoms, I argue that we can turn to the everyday compositional practices and rhetorical engagements of online communities and affinity groups as sites of public writing pedagogy. In short, we can locate new publics for public writing.