Note that these readings have not been updated. This course was initially conceived of as an examination of Fanfiction within a media/communication studies program, but is very closely tied to an English program as currently written. In updating readings it would be very easy to adapt the content toward more of a Communication or Media Studies program. I have pulled ideas and readings from this list regularly to incorporate into gust lectures and other courses I have developed on Advertising/Marketing, Film, Communications, and Media Studies as well as having employed a number of these readings successfully in the past in an Independent Reading course in English.

This syllabus is laid out as a full year course, but could very easily be broken into 2 semesters or adapted into a one semester course.

Finally, it should be noted that this course is set up with the expectation that students will read actual fanfiction. The examples of fanfiction included in the syllabus would likely be replaced by samples in Francesca Coppa’s The Fanfiction Reader: Folk Tales for the Digital Age, University of Michigan Press, 2017 as this book has been published with the intent of providing fanfiction for academic study with full consent and cooperation of the fanfiction authors included in the Reader.

Fanfiction as Communication: Breaking Down the Fourth Wall 

Required Texts: 

Hellekson, Karen and Kristina Busse. Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the  Internet. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2006. 

Other readings will be available online or on reserve at the library. 

Various videos or podcasts, all available online. 

Course Description 

Fanfiction, the practice of writing within the world and/or using the characters of an established  work of fiction, has recently made headlines with the popularity of such blockbuster publications  as E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy (2012). This particular book set is arguably the most  popular in a series of works by authors who have crossed from online and anonymous fanfiction  writing to the physical world of traditional publishing. It is now also possible to legally publish  fanfiction through Amazon’s Kindle Worlds publishing banner without removing references to the  source material and platforms like Wattpad are changing our understandings of the divide  between fanfiction and original fiction.  

This course will examine fanfiction as a digital genre and consider the implications of its  changing nature in terms of communication. Fanfiction is not simply a creative and/or  subversive act of a subculture, nor is it simply a form of literature, it is also a form of  communication. Fan authors communicate with fan readers, source producers and creators,  and the source material itself. These differing forms of communication are further problematized  by the spaces in which they occur. This course will engage with fanfiction as communication. 

Evaluation 

• Bi-Weekly Blogs 15%
• Participation 10%
• Presentation of Course Material 10%
• Creative Work 15%
• Analysis of Fanfiction 15%
• Presentation of Final Paper 5%
• Final Paper 30%

Weekly Readings 

Week 1: Introduction to the Course. What is fanfiction? 

No required Readings 

Week 2: 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. <https://web.archive.org/web/ 20100613082034/http://law.case.edu/centers/lta/media/file0036.mp3>. 28-49 mins. Podcast.  Cut version of the panel available here (approximately 20mins). 

• Jamison, Anne. “Writing from Sources: From Mimesis to the Sherlock Holmes Fandom.” Fic:  Why Fanfiction is Taking Over the World. 25-48. 

Week 3: Theory  

• 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.

• Jenkins, Henry. “‘Get a Life!’: Fans, Poachers, Nomads.” Textual Poachers: Television Fans  and Participatory Culture-Updated Twentieth Anniversary Edition. Henry Jenkins. New York:  Routledge, 2013. 9-49. 

Week 4: Academics and Fanfiction Authors 

• Booth, Paul. “Digital Fandom Between Work and Text.” Digital Fandom: New Media Studies.  New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2010. 33-54. 

• 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. Available here. 

Week 5: Taste and Privilege 

• 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.

• 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. 

• Norrington, Juliet. The Baker Street Fanfiction Academy. Fanfiction.net. Available here, read  all 10 chapters.

Week 6: Policing. Who gets to be a fan? 

• Pinkowitz, Jacqueline M. “‘The Rabid Fans that Take [Twilight] too Seriously’: The  Construction and Rejection of Excess in Twilight Antifandom.” Transformative Works and  Cultures. Vol. 7 (2011). Available here. 

• Zubernis, Lynn and Katherine Larsen. “Taking Sides: Business or Pleasure?” Fandom at the  Crossroads: Celebration, Shame and Fan/Producer Relationships. Newcastle upon Tyne:  Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012. 36-56. 

Week 7: Genres as Communication 

• 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, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2006. 61-78. 

• 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. 

• Jenkins, Henry. “Ten Ways to Rewrite a Television Show.” Textual Poachers: Television Fans  and Participatory Culture-Updated Twentieth Anniversary Edition. Henry Jenkins. New York:  Routledge, 2013. 162-177. 

• Lackner, Eden, Barbara Lynn Lucas, and Robin Anne Reid. “Cunning Linguists: The Bisexual  Erotics of Words/Silence/Flesh.” Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet.  Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse, eds. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company,  2006. 189-206. 

Week 9: Gender and Fanfiction 

• Gilbert, Sandra and Susan Gubar. “Infection in the Sentence: The Woman Writer and the  Anxiety of Authorship.” The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth Century iterary Imagination. 1979. 2nd ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000.  Available here. 

• Jamison, Anne and Jacqueline Lichtenberg. “I Am Woman, Read my Fic.” and “Recollections  of a Collating Party.”Fic: Why Fanfiction is Taking Over the World. 84-102.

• Green, Shoshanna, Cynthia Jenkins, and Henry Jenkins, eds. “‘Normal Female Interest in  Men Bonking’: Selections from The Terra Nostra Underground and Strange Bedfellows.” n.d.  Available here. 

Week 10: Slash: Queering the Canon 

• McClellan, Ann. “Redefining Genderswap Fan Fiction: A Sherlock Case Study.” Transformative  Works and Cultures. Vol. 17 (2014). Available here. 

• 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. 

• Astrom, Berit. “‘Let’s Get Those Winchesters Pregnant’: Male Pregnancy in Supernatural Fan  Fiction.” Transformative Works and Cultures. Vol. 4 (2010).

Week 11: Fanfiction as Romance 

• 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. 

• 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. 

Week 12: Fanfiction as Porn 

• 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. 

• Booth, Paul. “Slash and Porn: Media Subversion, Hyper-Articulation, and Parody.” Continuum:  Journal of Media and Cultural Studies. 20 March 2014. 

• Stasi, Mafalda. “The Toy Soldiers from Leeds: The Slash Palimpsest.” Fan Fiction and Fan  Communities in the Age of the Internet. Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse, eds. Jefferson,  North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2006. 113-133. 

BREAK 

Week 13: Issues of Legality and Creativity 

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

• Tushnet, Rebecca. “Legal Fictions: Copyright, Fan Fiction, and a New Common Law.” 17  Loy.L.A.Ent.Rev.651 (1997). Available here. 

Week 14: Fans as Producers 

• Hills, Matt. “Sherlock’s Epistemological Economy and the Value of ‘Fan’ Knowledge: How  Producer-Fans Play the (Great) Game of Fandom” Sherlock and Transmedia Fandom: Essays  on the BBC Series. Louisa Ellen Stein and Kristina Busse, eds. London: McFarland &  Company, 2012. 27-40. 

• View: Space Janitors (2012-) At least Season One. Available here. 

• The Lizzie Bennet Diaries () At least 5 Episodes. Available here. 

Week 15: Fan Labour 

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

• Jones, Bethan. “Fifty Shades of Exploitation: Fan Labor and Fifty Shades of Grey.”  Transformative Works and Culture. Vol. 15 (2014).  

Week 16: Authorized “Fanfiction” vs “Real” Fanfiction 

• Jamison, Anne. “Fanfiction and Writers who Don’t Write Fanfiction.”Fic: Why Fanfiction is  Taking Over the World. 355-362. 

• Jaffe, Brooke. “Kindle Worlds Takes on Kurt Vonnegut’s Oeuvre, Fans Still Dislike the  Consumerist Fic Platform.” The Mary Sue. 2 August 2013.

• Claire, Cassandra. Draco Dormiens. Book One of The Draco Trilogy. 2000-2006.

Week 17: Public vs. Private: The Spaces of Fanfiction 

• Mirmohadi, Kylie. “Jane Austen’s Adventures in Wattpadland.” The Digital Afterlives of Jane  Austen: Janeites at the Keyboard. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

• Zubernis, Lynn and Katherine Larsen. “Lost in Space: Participatory Fandom and the  Negotiation of Spaces” Fandom at the Crossroads: Celebration, Shame and Fan/Producer  Relationships. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012. 16-35. 

Week 18: New Forms of Fanfiction 

• Stein, Louise Ellen. “‘This Dratted Thing’: Fannish Storytelling Through New Media.” Fan  Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet. Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse,  eds. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2006. 245-260. 

• Wood, Megan M and Linda Baughman. “Glee Fandom and Twitter: Something New, or More  of the Same Old Thing?” Communication Studies. 63.3 (2012), 328-344. 

Week 19: Fanfiction as a Training Ground 

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

• 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.

• Harper, Nika. “Fan Fiction.” Word Play with Nika Harper. Geek & Sundry. <http://youtu.be/ x0gKN8FO4yE?list=FLOkNWfhPqNxH-hWr-kyEy2A>. YouTube Video. (6 minutes) 

Week 20:The Comments Section 

• Herzog, Alexandra. “‘But This is my Story and This is How I Wanted to Write it’: Author’s Notes  as a Fannish Claim to Power in Fan Fiction Writing.” Transformative Works and Culture. Vol.  11 (2012).  

• Mirmohadi, Kylie. “Reading (Austen) on Wattpad.” The Digital Afterlives of Jane Austen:  Janeites at the Keyboard. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 

Week 21: Fifty Shades: Redefining Fanfiction 

• Romano, Aja. “Fifty Shades of Grey and the Twilight Pro-fic Phenomenon.” The Mary Sue. 23  March 2012.  

• Jamison, Anne, Vivien Dean, and Andrew Shaffer. “Part Three: Fic and Publishing.” Fic: Why  Fanfiction is Taking Over the World. 259-298. 

Week 22: Final Paper Presentations 

Week 23: Final Paper Presentations 

Week 24: Final Paper Presentations 

Week 25: What is Fanfiction? 

• Parrish, Juli J. “Metaphors we Read by: People, Process, and Fan Fiction.” Transformative  Works and Cultures. Vol. 14 (2013).

Week 26: Final Reflections