Leitores e leituras de Harry Potter : a recepção da série no meio virtual

Abstract

This research came out from the observation of two global phenomena: the global success of Harry Potter series, by Britannic authoress J.K. Rowling, and the increasing use and influence of the virtual environment in daily habits of present society. Thus, the purpose of this study is to verify the reception of Rowling's works, through the Aesthtics of Reception, in cyberculture by analyzing virtual communities registered on the social networking service site Orkut, questionnaires sent to virtual readers participants of such virtual communities, and literary fanfictions which deal with the wizard boy. After exploratory research, it was verified that there are uncountable virtual communities and sites of literary fanfiction about Harry Potter, which led to the selection of two communities: Harry Potter Brasil and Eu adoro ler Harry Potter (I love reading Harry Potter) and the site of literary fanfiction Aliança 3 Vassouras (The Three Broomsticks), in order to verify how the discussions and literary creations in such virtual spaces happen. Therefore, it was investigated the types of practices of reading which became possible to observe that the readers had freedom to create their own meanings about the series. So, both in virtual communities and in fan fictions, fans of Harry Potter, try to identify themselves with the book, as well as opportunity to expose their own considerations of the adventures of the young wizard. With the undertaken analysis, it was confirmed that this research may also open path for new studies which use the cyberculture as support for discussion and formation of critical readers, by undoing its negative characterization as something that provokes alienation.