Conclusions & Implications

The Autobiography of Jane Eyre reflects a new tradition of digital literacies practices for online fans. The show exists entirely in internet spaces, utilizing familiar social networking sites as tools for shaping narratives. AOJE’s narrative success relies upon trusting an audience to be literate about YouTube, Twitter, and Tumblr. The fans do indeed possess this literacy, which is proven by the “aoje” tag discussion of not only the YouTube episodes of AOJE, but the Twitter and Tumblr contributions to the narrative.

There has been much prior discussion about transmedia as “narrative augmentation” in online spaces – which basically means that the main narrative (told in a well-known medium like television, film, book, etc., with its producers in a position of economic power) is expanded by online participation. In AOJE, the use of transmedia storytelling does not just expand the narrative: it comprises it entirely. AOJE is more like a grassroots fan creation than a commercially produced piece of mainstream fiction: it exists as a remix of two previously existing texts, Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Bernie Su and Hank Green’s webisode series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (a Pride & Prejudice adaptation). It is also notable that for the first half of its run, AOJE has been independently produced “working on a 0$ budget” (“Frequently Asked Questions”, The Autobiography of Jane Eyre: A Web Series). The success of AOJE proves that internet fandom is digitally literate enough to engage with social media not only for personal purposes, but as an audience of a fictional narrative.

Recent events in the AOJE fandom prove how strongly the audience has embraced AOJE as a work of fiction worth supporting. On November 22, 2013, the AOJE team started an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for producing the second half of the series. As initiative for fans to donate, the AOJE team offered show-themed care packages for donors, as well as special extra videos starring various AOJE characters. The campaign goal was to raise $5,000 by January 3, 2014; instead, the $5,000 goal was reached within fourteen hours of the campaign's debut online.

We can conclude, therefore, that creating and maintaining AOJE within fan spaces, using digital literacies practices that fans are savvy with, has resulted in a fiercely supportive fanbase.


References

• "The Autobiography of Jane Eyre." Indiegogo. Indiegogo, Inc., 2013. Web. 4 Dec. 2013. [NOTE TO SELF: THIS IS IN MLA, FIGURE OUT HOW TO CHANGE IT. APA, you rogue mystery.]
• AoJE Production Videos (2013, November 23). THANK YOU! Retrieved Dec. 4, 2013, from http://youtu.be/EPZ2ANRPJy4