I developed and implemented this independent study for a third year student at the University of Lethbridge while I was completing my MA in English there (2013). Together we discussed the student’s interests in fanfiction and then I built a course of study based on those interests and in an effort to provide a foundation of fan studies.

Fanfiction Studies

Course Description:

This course is an independent study to help the student better understand and interrogate the fan activity of fanfiction. As such, we will read some of the foundational works in this field of study, as well as approach topics of interest specific to the individual student.

Assignments:

Two essays, each approximately 18 pages in length, that interrogate fanfiction as a mode of writing or engage in close reading of select fanfiction stories and/or genres.
A final combined presentation of both essays to describe the arguments for supervising professors. This presentation will also include a question and answer period that offers the student the opportunity to display their knowledge of the topic.
As this is an independent study, the student is required to come to every meeting having read the material and prepared to discuss with the instructor. The student is also required to come prepared with examples of how the weekly readings can be applied to specific aspects of fanfiction. As such, the grade for this course will be a combination of participation (20%), two written essays (30% each), and a final presentation for instructor and supervising professors (20%).
Due Dates for Papers: March 7 — Essay 1; April 11 — Essay 2

Reading List:

Jan. 17 Introduction and History

Coppa, Francesca. “A Brief History of Fandom.” Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet. Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse, eds. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2006. 41-59.

Judge, Elizabeth. “Eighteenth-Century FanFiction and Copyright Law.” Con/Texts of Invention Conference. Case Western Reserve University. April 2006. <http:// law.case.edu/centers/lta/media/file0036.mp3>. Podcast.

Scott, Suzanne. “Textual Poachers, Twenty Years Later: A Conversation between Henry Jenkins and Suzanne Scott.” Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture-Updated Twentieth Anniversary Edition. Henry Jenkins. New York: Routledge, 2013. v-l.

Jenkins, Henry. “Introduction.” Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture-Updated Twentieth Anniversary Edition. Henry Jenkins. New York: Routledge, 2013. 1-8.

De Certeau, Michel. “The Practice of Everyday Life.” Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader. John Storey, ed. 3rd ed. Essex: Pearson Education, 2006. 516-527.

Jan. 24 Poaching, Taste, Privilege, and Canon

Revisit de Certeau.

Bourdieu, Pierre. “Distinction and the Aristocracy of Culture.” Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader. John Storey, ed. 3rd ed. Essex: Pearson Education, 2006. 466-477.

Thomas, Angela. “Fan fiction online: Engagement, critical response and affective play through writing.” Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. 29.3 (October 2006), 226-239..

Jan. 31 Poaching, Taste, Privilege, and Canon

Revisit Bourdieu
Carruthers, Fiona. “Fanfic is good for two things – Greasing Engines and Killing Brain Cells.” Particip@tions. 1.2 (May 2004), n.p.

Lee, Kristi. “Under the Waterfall: A Fanfiction Community’s Analysis of their Self- representation and Peer Review.” Refractory: A Journal of Entertainment Media. 3 February 2004, n.p.

Karpovich, Angelina I. “The Audience as Editor: The Role of Beta Readers in Online Fan Fiction Communities.” Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet. Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse, eds. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2006. 171-188.

Official Fanfiction University- visit various university sites. Including the original: Miss Cam’s Official Fanfiction University of Middle Earth <http://www.misssandman.com/ LOTR/ofum.html>

Feb. 7 Mary Sue, (Women’s) Writing

Pflieger, Pat. “Too Good to be True: 150 Years of Mary Sue.” American Culture Association Conference. San Diego, CA, 1999. <www.merrycoz.org/MARYSUE.HTM>.

Derecho, Abigail. “Archontic Literature: A Definition, a History, and Several Theories of Fan Fiction.” Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet. Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse, eds. Jefferson, Northj Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2006. 61-78.

Gilbert, Sandra M and Susan Gubar. “Infection in the Sentence: The Woman Writer and the Anxiety of Authorship.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Vincent B. Leitch, ed. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2001. 2023-2035.

Feb. 14 Mary Sue, (Women’s) Writing

Cixous, Hélène. “The Laugh of the Medusa.” Critical Theory: A Reader for Literary and Cultural Studies. Robert Dale Parker, ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. 242-256.

Selections from: Russ, Joanna. How to Suppress Women’s Writing. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983.

Crowder, Diane Griffin. “Amazons and Mothers? Monique Wittig, Hélène Cixous and Theories of Women’s Writing.” Contemporary Literature. 24.2 (1983), 117-144.

Howell, Beth. “Literacy, Subjectivity and the Gender Divide: ‘the freedom of writing implies the freedom of citizens’ (Sartre, 1948).'” Gender and Education. 20.5 (2008), 511-525.

Feb. 28 Romance, Porn, Yuri, Slash

Ang, Ien. “Feminist Desire and Female Pleasure.” Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader. John Storey, ed. 3rd ed. Essex: Pearson Education, 2006. 554-563.

Arcand, Bernard. “Three Definitions of Pornography.” The Jaguar and the Anteater: Pornography Degree Zero. 1993.

Driscoll, Catherine. “One True Pairing: The Romance of Pornography and the Pornography of Romance.” Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet. Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse, eds. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2006. 79-96.

March 7 Romance, Porn, Yuri, Slash Part 2

— 1st Essay Due —

Woledge, Elizabeth. “Intimatopia: Genre Intersections Between Slash and the Mainstream.” Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet. Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse, eds. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2006. 97-114.

Green, Shoshanna, Cynthia Jenkins, and Henry Jenkins. “‘Normal Female Interest in Men Bonking’: Selections from The Terra Nostra Underground and Strange Bedfellows.” http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/bonking.html

Salmon, Catherine and Don Symons. “Slash Fiction and Human Mating Psychology.” The Journal of Sex Research. 41.1 (2004), 94-100.

Mar. 14 Character

Kaplan, Deborah. “Construction of Fan Fiction Character Through Narrative.” Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet. Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse, eds. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2006. 134-152.

Chandler-Olcott, Kelly and Donna Mahar. “Adolescents’ Anime-Inspired “Fanfictions’: An Exploration of Multiliteracies.” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. 46.7 (2003), 556-566.

Wood, Andrea. “‘Straight’ Women, Queer Texts: Boy-Love Manga and the Rise of a Global Counterpublic.” Women’s Studies Quarterly. 34.1/2 (2006), 394-414.

Mar. 21 Harry Potter

Jenkins, Henry. “Why Heather Can Write: Media Literacy and the Harry Potter Wars.” Convergence Culture. New York: New York University Press, 2006. 169-205.

Willis, Ika. “Keeping Promises to Queer Children: Making Space (for Mary Sue) at Hogwarts.” Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet. Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse, eds. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2006. 153-170.

Grossman, Lev. “The Boy Who Lived Forever.” Time. 178.3 (7/18/2011), 44-50. Selections from various Harry Potter fanfic.

March 28 Issues of Legality and Creativity

Davis, Lauren. “Are Fanfiction and Fan Art Legal?” io9 (12 Aug 2012). <http://io9.com/5933976/are-fan-fiction-and-fan-art-legal>.

Schwabach, Aaron. “Introduction: Who Owns Fandom?” And “Chapter 1: The World of Fanfiction.” Fan Fiction and Copyright: Outsider Works and Intellectual Property Protection. Surrey, England: Ashgate, 2011. 1-20.

Morrison, Ewan. “In the Beginning, There Was Fan Fiction: From the Four Gospels to Fifty Shades.” The Guardian. 13 Aug 2012. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/ aug/13/fan-fiction-fifty-shades-grey>.

April 4 Fan Labour

De Kosnick, Abigail. “Fandom as Free Labor.” Digital Labor. New York: Routledge, 2013. 98-111.

Shirky, Clay. “Personal, Communal, Public, Civic.” Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age: How Technology Makes Consumers into Collaborators. New York: Penguin, 2010. 161-182.

April 11 Final Paper Discussion & Conclusion

— Final Essay Due —

TBD based on readings related to final paper.