by Charlesie Robison
This year, Centre College has introduced a new course: CHN 380, or Chinese Pop Culture. In this class, one thing stuck out among the others on the syllabus: the inclusion of three links to the popular fanfiction website, Archive of Our Own. The inclusion of the fanfiction website was meant to tie into the popularity of BL within Chinese popular culture, with the fanfictions themselves ranging from a “Coffee-shop AU” to even a fic that falls under the famously known ABO category.
When looking at this on the syllabus, the question becomes: is fanfiction something that belongs in a college class? And if not, who decides that? Fanfiction in the west has a very specific connotation, being seen as something embarrassing and is typically kept to oneself, but what is it that in the first place? In this article, I am going to be discussing where fanfiction comes from in the first place, and its status as literature.
Fanfiction History
Fanfiction, for those who are unaware of the term, is the name given to creative written works which use pre-established properties as the characters, world, or culture. The phrase “fanfiction” itself acts as an umbrella statement, as within the medium there exists a multitude of different subgenres and common themes. Romantic fanfiction holds genres such as “hurt/comfort” (when characters experience some type of painful or traumatic experience, only to be comforted by the end) and “enemies to lovers” (in which two characters start off in a negative relationship, and end in a positive one). Romance, while the most popular, is not the only genre within fanfiction, as readers will also find an abundance of what are called “AU’s” or “Alternative Universes” where the characters are put in entirely new worlds and situations. Putting mundane characters into worlds of magic and putting magical characters into a universe of the mundane reality are equally popular.
The origins of fanfiction are quite muddied, as it is based entirely on what someone’s definition of the phrase is. Before the addition of copyright laws, it was common for authors to base their own works upon other popular works at the time, such as Shakespeare’s Othello being based on Gli Hecatommithi by Cinthio. In the 1600’s, the author Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda wrote his own sequel to Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote before an official sequel was released. Famously, people consider Dante’s Inferno to be the first instance of “self-insert fanfiction” where he inserted himself into the Bible and made his own rivals quite literally burn in hell. However, fanfiction as we understand the term began in the 19th century with the first “fandoms” existing for the works of Jane Austen, and more famously for the Sherlock Holmes franchise which has many notable fanworks.
The 1960’s sparked the shift from simple fan adaptations and continuations to using fanfiction for imagining romantic pairings, whether it be between the pre-established characters or characters of the author’s creation known as “OC’s” or “Original Characters”. This was most prominent in what is referred to as the first modern fandom with Star Trek. What is important to note about the Star Trek fanfiction fandom was that it was a space primarily held by women for women, while men dominated other parts of the fandom. Fanfiction was an outlet for women to write and expand upon a source rather than feeling restricted by the canon within it.
In modern day, fanfiction has grown into its own subculture, with a growing variety of genres and source media. One can find fanfiction for anything, from Harry Potter which remains the most popular source of fanfiction, to multiple children’s shows, and even most classical literature still gets recently published fanworks. The fanfiction community has shifted in the years, existing not just for women but rather as a space for queer communities to write, creating the representation that they do not see in the media they consume. Most often, popular pairings will be queer, primarily between two men, and will delve into the queer experience through these fictional characters. While sometimes the characters may hold queer-coding in the original work, it is just as common to see fanfiction for characters who may have never spoken in canon, and even some for characters from two entirely different universes, such as the ever-famous “SuperWhoLock” phenomenon from 2012-2014.
Fanfiction as Literature
Stepping away from history, now what we need to do is to look at fanfiction from a literary perspective. That is, how does fanfiction exist in the literary canon? Steven G. Kellman, a writer for Ebsco, defines the literary canon as “body of works that are widely regarded as essential reading within a culture, often serving as a benchmark for measuring literary quality”, and is widely regarded by scholars as holding some of culture’s most influential texts. That said, the literary canon also holds within it heavy controversy, with it featuring primarily western, specifically white, male authors. Because of this, modern scholars have begun to step away from the list of literary canon, and have instead begun to broaden their perspective of what literature is.
We have seen that change right here in Centre College, with English courses teaching Shakespeare and modern Y/A novels in the same class. The idea of what literature is has changed, and it is no longer simply what exists in the canon, but rather what can hold meaning to people. If it can be analyzed and dissected, and if it can resonate with the audience in a deeper way, then it is considered literature. Literature is a name given specifically to writing as art, and how it is used as an artistic medium rather than being commercial. Because of this, why wouldn’t fanfiction count as literature—works written with no monetary gain, but rather with the sheer desire to create art and build community? Yes, not all fan fictions are well written, nor deep and rich with metaphors and analytical themes, but the same goes for anything found in your local library. Art is subjective, it is vast; and for every Agatha Christie there is a Colleen Hoover. Literature is not binary; it exists as a spectrum, and that spectrum looks different to anyone who chooses to read. Everyone has different values, different likes and dislikes, and what might resonate with one audience might not resonate with another.
Fanfiction is no different, then. Based on this new definition, if it resonates with at least one reader, it holds value. As long as one person picks it up, reads it, and walks away feeling as though they have gained something from reading it, then it has merit, and should be considered literature. I have read fanfictions which have fundamentally changed the way I see the world, and I mean this in full sincerity. Stories have changed how I see myself and those around me, have made me rethink my own decisions and the people I spend my time with, and have encouraged me to become a better person. Do these stories, which have changed me and helped me become who I am today, hold less value because they are not featured on a list called “best classics you need to read before you die”? Are they not considered literature because you cannot hold them in your hand, feel the pages between your fingers, and smell the ink and dust with every new chapter?
Yes, these stories are not entirely original. They exist in pre-existing universes with pre-existing characters, but every sentence is unique. Every plot point and written piece of dialogue is something entirely new, and sometimes it is using these pre-existing characters that helped the work resonate all the more—because you are seeing characters you already care about, that you already know and love, rather than learning about someone entirely new.
I am not saying that fanfiction is inherently better than all pre-existing literature, nor am I saying that every piece of fanfiction is a well written masterpiece that should be taught to our English department. I am simply writing about how fanfiction has been perceived overtime, and suggesting that when the discussions about literary merit and canon are held, one should not be so quick to dismiss the stories written by teenage girls on their phones in the back of their science class about boys kissing—because sometimes those works will be the best thing you have ever read.