CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | McDonald, Kailey |
|---|---|
| Title | Radicality and Regulation: Negotiating Selfhood in Tumblr Roleplay |
| Summary | In this thesis, I explore theories of negotiating selfhood and subjectivity through an auto-cyberethnographic analysis of the Tumblr literate roleplay group Vieux Noyés RP. Tumblr roleplay is a genre of collaborative online fiction writing, which uses the social media site Tumblr as its medium. In my analysis, I use bell hooks’ concept, spaces of radical openness, and Thomas Lemke’s interpretation of Foucault’s concept of governmentality to examine the ways in which the members’ experiences of selfhood are framed within and by the group. Both frameworks discuss mechanisms of power, and I compare the iterations of these mechanisms to understand how they contradict, intersect, and/or interact with one another, in order to explore the possibilities and possible applications offered by hooks’ spaces of radical openness. As a member and administrator of the roleplay, I analyze my own position and experiences within Vieux Noyés RP, drawing on auto-ethnographic and cyber-ethnographic methodologies. This particular style of inquiry allows me to reflect on the ways in which Vieux Noyés RP shapes my understanding of my position, both on- and offline, and also to reflect on the ways in which the internet-based medium of Tumblr informs our experiences of the roleplay group. I conduct this analysis using posts from the shared community chat space “the out-of-character” or “OOC” chat, private messages between members and myself, and my access to administrative discussions and behind-the-scenes content in order to shed light on the ways in which the margin/center distinction of hooks’ radical openness and mechanisms of governmentality inform the relationships between members of the Vieux Noyés community, and their lived experiences of selfhood. |
| Supervisor | Barat, Erzsebet; Jones-Gailani, Nadia |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/mcdonald_kailey.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University