This thesis explores the value of zines as multimodal texts that can create a sense of space, place, and/or community for both zine readers and zine-makers (“zinesters”). In this thesis, I discuss the contributions of space and place to the production of, engagement with, and preservation of zines within communities. After reviewing literature on the archival, pedagogical, rhetorical, and methodological implications of zines, I interview three zinesters – Remi Germaine, Bre Upton, and Alice Wynne – and pose a series of questions about their zine-making processes and conceptions of space, place, and community. I respond to the same questions as a fourth and final case study, then collate, summarize, and expand on my takeaways in the form of a “summative zine,” included in the appendix of this thesis. By analyzing and assigning descriptive themes to the interview responses, I identify and explore five key takeaways in the summative zine: among them, the capacity of zines to fight sterility, facilitate placemaking through provenance, and function as rhetorical infrastructures for personal and communal expression.
Read
