Fanfiction has existed as long as storytelling in various forms throughout history. In the 1960s, science fiction fans published fanzines, which were magazines copied by hand or with a mimeograph that circulated fanfiction among hundreds of readers. Now in the digital age, fanfiction reaches wide audiences through websites but is considered derivative works under US copyright law. However, some authors argue the distinction between fanfiction and other fictional works that expand on existing characters and worlds is often just a matter of commercial success and respectability rather than creative differences.

1. Fanfiction vs the
Status Quo
Dr Barbara Bordalejo
Department of English
University of Saskatchewan

2. What is fanfiction?
• It is a type of writing produced by fans of a
work, rather than by the original author.
• It is rarely published commercially.
• It assumes knowledge of the world or
character-set it expands.
• It is generally read by other fans.
• Fanfiction authors do not write for money.

3. Origins of fanfiction
• It is as old as storytelling… because it is
storytelling.
• Virgil’s Aeneid is the retelling of the story of
Aeneas, who appears in Homer’s Iliad.
• Cervantes’ Don Quixote (1605) was followed by
a “spurious” continuation in 1614. Only
afterwards Cervantes finished the second part
of the book that was published in 1615 and is
considered the most important novel in
Spanish.

4. Origins of fanfiction
• In the 1960s, science fiction fans published
fanzines.
• Fanzine= fan + magazine

6. Origins of fanfiction
• In the 1960s, science fiction fans published
fanzines.
• Fanzine= fan + magazine
• These publications were either copied by
hand or reproduced using a mimeograph.
• Their circulation might have reached the
hundreds.
• They were mostly mailed or distributed at
conventions.

7. Characteristics of fanfiction
• It relates to one or more canons (Harry
Potter, Twilight, A Song of Ice and Fire).
• It explores alternatives to the canon.
• Alternate Universe (AU; characters who die
in the canonical text are alive in the
fanfiction).
• Sexuality (Slash, Femslash, Het, Kinks).
• Crossovers.
• It answers/critiques its canon.

8. Fanfiction in the Digital Age
• Fanfiction distributed via websites can reach
a wide audience.
• This wide distribution might have an impact
on the sales of traditionally published
authors.
• US copyright law considers fanfiction as
derivative works.
• I would like you to consider this idea: what is
derivative? What isn’t?

10. J. K. Rowling

11. J. K. Rowling
• Reportedly has sold 450,000,000 (2011)
• This did not prevent an attempt at stopping
the publication of James Potter and the Hall of
Elders Crossing by G. Norman Lippert.
• Eventually the lawsuit was dropped by
Rowling.

12. http://www.elderscrossing.com/wizard.html

13. But what if James couldn’t catch the Snitch, as
his father had done? What if he wasn’t as good
on the broom? Uncle Ron had said that riding a
broom was in the Potter blood as sure as
dragons breathed fire, but what if James proved
him wrong? What if he was slow, or clumsy, or
fell off? What if he didn’t even make the team?
For the rest of the first years, that would only be
a mild disappointment. Even though the rules
had been changed to admit them, very few first
years ever made the House teams. For James,
however, that would mean he already hadn’t
measured up to expectations.

14. He would already have failed to be as great as
the great Harry Potter. And if he couldn’t even
measure up to his dad in terms of something as
elemental as Quidditch, how could he ever hope
to live up to the legend of the boy who defeated
the Basilisk, won the Triwizard Cup, united the
Deathly Hallows and, oh yeah, put old Moldy
Voldy, the darkest and most dangerous wizard
who ever lived, in the ground for good? (13-14)

15. Stephenie Meyer

16. Stephenie Meyer
• Has sold around 250,000,000 (2012)
• The novels were marketed to young adults,
but found a different kind of public in older
women (Twilight moms).
• Cultural theorists have described the novels
as soft porn.
• Twilight also reaches the hundreds of
thousands in fanfiction production

18. E. L. James

19. E. L. James
• She is the top ranking author, earning around
$95,000,000 between 2012 and 2013.
• She started writing Twilight fanfiction in 2009
as Snowqueen’s Icedragon, with the title Master
of the Universe.
• MoU featured Bella Swan and Edward Cullen.
• In 2011, James pulled her fiction out of the
fanfiction sites, renamed the characters
Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey and
published with The Writer’s Coffee Shop, Fifty
Shades of Grey.

20. E. L. James
• Fifty Shades was traditionally published by
Vintage in April 2012 and by the summer it
had outsold the Harry Potter books.
• E. L. James has said that her books have little
in common with the series that inspired them.
• Vintage has released several statements about
the originality of the work and its lack of
relation to MoU.
• Fifty Shades of Grey can be read as creative
criticism of Twilight.

21. Jasper Fforde

22. Jasper Fforde
• He is the author of The Eyre Affair and other
novels (the Thursday Next series)
• His novels often feature well known literary
characters (Jane Eyre, Mr Rochester, Miss
Havishan, Heatcliff, etc.).
• He has gone on record stating than he could
not understand fanfiction and that he did not
approve of anyone using “his” characters or
settings.

23. Theresa Nielson Hayden, quoted by Caroline Ball,
(2007):
In a purely literary sense, fanfic doesn’t exist.
There is only fiction. Fanfic is a legal category
created by the modern system of trademarks and
copyrights. Putting that label on a work of fiction
says nothing about its quality, its creativity, or the
intent of the writer who created it. The
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction this year [2006] went
to March, a novel by Geraldine Brooks, published
by Viking. It's a re-imagining of the life of the
father of the four March girls in Louisa May

24. Can you see a particle of difference between that
and a work of declared fanfiction? I can’t. I can
only see two differences: first, Louisa May Alcott
is out of copyright; and second, Louisa May
Alcott, Geraldine Brooks, and Viking are
dreadfully respectable. (Ball, 11)

25. Fanfiction vs the
Status Quo
Dr Barbara Bordalejo
barbara.bordalejo@usask.ca
@bordalejo
@TextualScholar