Next year’s SHARP conference in Antwerp (17-21 September 2014) has the central theme of ‘Religions of the Book’. I would be interested in submitting a proposal for a session on ‘New Sites of Worship’ and invite anyone interested in this theme to join this session.
The rise of new social networks and websites both general (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr) and those geared towards reading (e.g. Goodreads, Shelfari, LibraryThing) have led to ‘new sites of worship’ for fandom of literary authors. Users have populated these sites to discuss their favourite authors and books. Occasionally this discourse has become out-of-control and fandom has become fanatical and discussion of the literary turns into worship.
The proposed session will explore the traces of rabid fandom online including but limited to role-play, interaction with authors, obsession and misuses of social media. Please send a short abstract (400 words) to Simon Rowberry (s.rowberry.13@unimail.winchester.ac.uk) by Thursday 28 November if you want to participate in this session.