Fanfiction

What is fanfiction? Why is it glorified among fans? And more importantly, what is all the hype about?

The first question is fairly easy to answer. In general, fanfiction is a preferred text written by fans for fans within a certain fandom (a subculture composed of fans that shares common interest) from any genre. It is not limited to only television series, but also includes movies, novels, video games, musicians, and whatever else you can think of. Basically, fanfiction WILL exist in ANYTHING with a huge fan base. Take for example, Harry Potter, one of the most successful children's book ever written. This epic 7-series fantasy-novel lead to the creation of a massive amount of fanfictions. That being said, one of the sites that solely dedicates itself towards Harry Potter fanfictions is Fiction Alley.

Since we now understand what fanfiction is, we go to the second and third question. According to Isabella Santos Mundim (2006), fanfiction provide fans with the ability to gain satisfactory closure to a story. It allows fans to delve deeper into their favorite story and explore alternate possibilities within the story. She also stated that fanfiction is all about regaining control. Fanfiction writers take it upon themselves to correct the injustice and pain or apply their fantasies in canon (the official storyline/plot within a fictional universe). This was apparent when the last and final book of Harry Potter came out. A number of fan-written epilogues appeared on the net from writers all over the world. And for writers of taboo pairings such as Harry/Draco, they had arrived at a moot point - whether to continue writing based on canon or jump into an alternate universe altogether.

Isabella Santos Mundim (2006) described fanfiction writers as "always performing and enacting a theoretical position". This itself is evidence of the power of the reader to articulate and analyze different meanings from what is being presented to them.


A band's view on being in a fanfiction - MCR responds to fanfiction



References
Santos Mundim, I 2006, Roswell, textual gaps and fans subversive response, UFMG