用计算方法对比粉丝社群如何重新诠释小说角色，发现不同社区对角色认知差异显著。
Capturing Differences in Character Representations Between Communities: An Initial Study with Fandom
- 通过共现网络与词嵌入分析粉丝文本中角色的提及频率与语义关联变化。
- 粉丝社群对同一角色的性别化、美感和残忍度等概念联想差异巨大。
- 适合对叙事重构、粉丝文化或社会语言学感兴趣的读者。
社会语言学理论指出，叙事常在协作环境中被重述、共建和再概念化。本文聚焦于叙事世界中的角色再诠释，尝试计算比较在线社群间的角色表征差异。以高度社群化的粉丝文化为研究对象，采用计算方法分析《哈利·波特》原著、r/HarryPotter 社区帖子及 Archive of Our Own 上的同人小说，考察角色提及频率、共现网络中心性以及语义关联的变化。尽管粉丝文化普遍提升次要角色地位，但两个粉丝社群所重视的角色子集不同。词嵌入测试显示，同一角色在两社群中对女性化/男性化、残酷与美丽等性别概念的关联存在显著差异。此外，对某男性角色在不同配对同人小说中的描述分析发现，其在男男配对中呈现更高程度的女性化特征，符合以往定性理论预期。结果表明，计算方法可有效捕捉跨社群对叙事元素的再概念化，并支持粉丝研究的定性分析。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Sociolinguistic theories have highlighted how narratives are often retold, co-constructed and reconceptualized in collaborative settings. This working paper focuses on the re-interpretation of characters, an integral part of the narrative story-world, and attempts to study how this may be computationally compared between online communities. Using online fandom - a highly communal phenomenon that has been largely studied qualitatively - as data, computational methods were applied to explore shifts in character representations between two communities and the original text. Specifically, text from the Harry Potter novels, r/HarryPotter subreddit, and fanfiction on Archive of Our Own were analyzed for changes in character mentions, centrality measures from co-occurrence networks, and semantic associations. While fandom elevates secondary characters as found in past work, the two fan communities prioritize different subsets of characters. Word embedding tests reveal starkly different associations of the same characters between communities on the gendered concepts of femininity/masculinity, cruelty, and beauty. Furthermore, fanfiction descriptions of a male character analyzed between romance pairings scored higher for feminine-coded characteristics in male-male romance, matching past qualitative theorizing. The results high-light the potential for computational methods to assist in capturing the re-conceptualization of narrative elements across communities and in supporting qualitative research on fandom.
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