The Mintfield

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fan fiction (alternatively referred to as fanfiction, fanfic, FF, or fic) is a broadly-defined term for fan laborregarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator. Works of fan fiction are rarely commissioned or authorized by the original work’s owner, creator, or publisher; also, they are almost never professionally published. Because of this, many fan fictions written often contain a disclaimer stating that the creator of the work owns none of the characters. Fan fiction, therefore, is defined by being both related to its subject’s canonical fictional universe and simultaneously existing outside the canon of that universe.^[1] Most fan fiction writers assume that their work is read primarily by other fans, and therefore tend to presume that their readers have knowledge of the canon universe (created by a professional writer) in which their works are based.

Fanfiction is what literature might look like if it were reinvented from scratch after a nuclear apocalypse by a band of brilliant pop-culture junkies trapped in a sealed bunker. They don’t do it for money. That’s not what it’s about. The writers write it and put it up online just for the satisfaction. They’re fans, but they’re not silent, couchbound consumers of media. The culture talks to them, and they talk back to the culture in its own language.

—Lev Grossman, TIME, July 18, 2011

Media scholar Henry Jenkins explains the correlation between transmedia storytelling and fan fiction:^[2]

The encyclopedic ambitions of transmedia texts often results in what might be seen as gaps or excesses in the unfolding of the story: that is, they introduce potential plots which can not be fully told or extra details which hint at more than can be revealed. Readers, thus, have a strong incentive to continue to elaborate on these story elements, working them over through their speculations, until they take on a life of their own. Fan fiction can be seen as an unauthorized expansion of these media franchises into new directions which reflect the reader’s desire to “fill in the gaps” they have discovered in the commercially produced material.

History

Precursors

It is not certain when Cervantes began writing Part Two of Don Quixote, but he had probably not gotten much further than Chapter LIX by late July 1614. About September, however, a spurious Part Two, entitled Second Volume of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha: by the Licenciado (doctorate) Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda, of Tordesillas, was published in Tarragona by an unidentifiedAragonese who was an admirer of Lope de Vega, a rival of Cervantes.

The turn of the 20th century saw parodies and revisions of Lewis Carroll‘s Alice in Wonderland by authors including Frances Hodgson Burnettand E. Nesbit. In addition, there were several fan-authored versions of Arthur Conan Doyle‘s Sherlock Holmes stories.

In 1945, C. S. Lewis adopted certain elements from J.R.R. Tolkien‘s then largely unpublished legendarium (mostly Númenor, there spelled Numinor) and incorporated these into the last novel, That Hideous Strength, of his Space Trilogy.

Modern phenomenon

Before about 1965, the term “fan fiction” was used in science fiction fandom to designate original, thoughamateur, works of science fiction published in science fiction fanzines, as differentiated from fiction that was professionally published by professional writers; or fiction about fans and fandom.

However, the modern phenomenon of fan fiction as an expression of fandom and fan interaction was popularized and defined via Star Trek fandom and their fanzines published in the 1960s. The first Star Trekfanzine, Spockanalia, was published in 1967 and contained some fan fiction.^[3] These fanzines were produced via offset printing and mimeography, and mailed to other fans or sold at science fiction conventions for a small fee to help recoup costs. Unlike other aspects of fandom, women dominated fan fiction authoring; 83% of Star Trek fan fiction authors were female by 1970, and 90% by 1973.^[4]

Fan fiction has become more popular and widespread since the advent of the World Wide Web.^[5] In addition to traditional fanzines and conventions, Usenet group electronic mailing lists were established for fan fiction as well as fan discussion. Online, searchable fan fiction archives were also established. The online archives were initially non-commercial hand-tended and fandom- or topic-specific. These archives were followed by non-commercial automated databases. In 1998, the not-for-profit site FanFiction.Net came online, which allowed anyone to upload content in any fandom.^[6] The ability to self-publish fan fiction at an easily-accessible common archive that did not require insider knowledge to join, and the ability to review the stories directly on the site, became popular quite quickly.^[7] FanFiction.net now hosts millions of stories in dozens of languages, and is widely considered the largest and most popular fan fiction archive online.^[5] Its indiscriminate policy of accepting any and all submissions has led to its being fondly/derogatively nicknamed “The Pit of Voles.”^[8]

LiveJournal (founded in 1999) and other blogging services played a large part in the move away from mailing lists (both electronic andamateur press associations) to blogs as a means for fan communication and the sharing of fan fiction. Although much fan fiction today is published to archives, it would be impossible to tell whether more or less fan fiction today is posted directly to blogging services than to fan-fiction-specific archives, particularly since many authors maintain accounts on multiple sites and liberally cross-post their stories.