Fanged Fan Fiction

Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries have sparked intense fan activity and generated a large quantity of fan fiction: stories which test the limits of an already existing fictional work and explore gaps and discrepancies within it. Working from the idea that texts constitute archives, expanded and altered by each addition, close readings of a selection of fanfics illustrate particular transformative practices in the online environment. The central figure of the vampire is read through the lens of fanfic authors’ contributions to the archives, particularly regarding how figuratively or literally refanged versions of the trope are used to subvert norms established in the source texts concerning depictions of sexuality, sexual practices, and monstrosity. Complex relationships between authorial power and subversion, between mainstream messages and individual interpretations, are examined through fanfic analyses, the findings contributing to discussions about contemporary literary creativity.

Maria Lindgren Leavenworth is an associate professor of English literature at the Department of Language Studies at Umeå University in Sweden.

Malin Isaksson is an assistant professor of French literature at Umeå University.

Maria Lindgren Leavenworth and Malin Isaksson

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 236
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2013
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7044-0
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0629-3
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments v
Preface 1
Introduction: Transfusions, Transformations, Transgressions 3

1. Single White Females and Sympathetic Vampires: The Canons 17
2. Vampiric Prosumption: Archives, Genres and Fans’ Negotiations of Rules 44
3. The Archive of New Stories 68
Interlude: The Normal Discussion 112
4. Canon­Transgressive Lemony Goodness: Sexual Norms and Undead Desires 118
5. Something Wicked This Way Comes: Ethics, Monstrosity and Issues of the Soul 158

Conclusion: The Vampire Archived and Re­Fanged 200
Chapter Notes 205
Works Cited 211
Index 223

• Lord Ruthven Award — International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts
• “valuable…detailed insight”—Transformative Works and Cultures
• “well-researched, passionate, and entertaining, and furthermore it is admirable for its open-minded approach to fanfic, which is analysed with the same seriousness as any other literary body of texts. It is an excellent introduction to fan fiction in general and to the invisible ‘dark matter’ surrounding vampire block-busters and best-sellers in particular”—NORA—Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research
• “the book is a valuable addition to studies of both the literary vampire and of fan texts”—Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts