complete syllabus available on Blackboard, the Princeton courseware site. Please log on as a guest to to Blackboard as a guest and search for “fanfiction.” Most readings are there and available to the public.

Anne Jamison

Visiting Associate Professor Spring 2015

Department of English

Princeton University

ENG 222 Fanfiction: Transformative Works from Shakespeare to Sherlock

A teenage girl imagines herself at Hogwarts and writes about it online. The Brontë children write zines about the Duke of Wellington. Sherlock turns “the woman who beat Sherlock Holmes” into a professional dominatrix. A professional dominatrix writes fanfic about Sherlock. And so it goes.

What makes “fanfiction” different from Shakespeare basing his plays on sources, or House turning a Victorian detective into a doctor in West Windsor? What can amateur, unauthorized stories about other people’s characters do for readers and writers that paid, official culture can’t or won’t? In this course, we’ll be reading a lot of fanfic as well as looking at other cultural uses of adaptation and appropriation such as TV shows, web series, and avant-garde poetry. We’ll look at the historical tradition of “writing from sources” and examine the co-evolution of fanfiction and mass media from the 1890s to today. We will also welcome visitors (electronic and in-person) ranging from writers on Elementary and House to John/Sherlock slashers, as well as fan studies scholars, intellectual property attorneys, and a panel of fan writers and journalists who will discuss the changing relationship between fans, their creative work, and the media, publishing, and entertainment industries.

Required Texts available at Labyrinth Books:

The Fan Fiction Studies Reader, Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse, eds (Iowa)

Fic: Why Fanfiction is a Over the World, Anne Jamison et al. (Smart Pop)

Mallory Ortberg, Texts from Jane Eyre (Henry Holt)

Unless otherwise indicated, all other readings can be found as PDFs or links on Blackboard.

Reading and lecture schedule subject to change

Adjustments to the schedule are likely to accommodate course visitors, text disappearances (has been known to happen on the internet), and student interests.

SCHEDULE OF READINGS (VIEWINGS)

Introductions

Feb 2

“My Immortal”

Brenna Twohy, “Fantastic Breasts and Where to Find Them”

Jane Mortimer, “The Advantages of Fan Fiction as Art Form”

Anna Andersen, “Fanfiction Made Me a Better Feminist”

boardgamebrony/recorded by mikethemicrophone, “Luna, There’s a Sentient Race Inside Your Mane”

for future reference throughout the semester: TV Tropes edition of Vladimir Propp’s “Morphology of the Folktale” (read the 31 functions).

Browse & compare to excerpts from Propp’s (translated) original (for context and for the theoretically inclined)

Suggested for fanfic newcomers:

Browse & compare to excerpts from Propp’s (translated) original (for context and for the theoretically inclined) from Fic: “Why Fic?” (pp. 17-40)

Kristina Busse and Karen Hellekson, from Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: Introduction and glossary

History: Writing from Sources and the Birth of the Author

Feb 4

from Chrétien de Troyes, The Knight of the Cart (lines 1-30)

from The Lais of Marie de France: from Joan Ferrante’s Introduction; Prologue to the Lais; “Bisclavret” (The Werewolf)

from Holinshed’s Chronicles, Volume V, Scotland: King Duncan and King Macbeth, pp. 268-269; 271-274, MacDuffe, pp. 234-235

from Macbeth,iii; I.iv (Lady Macbeth); vii (70-95)

The Statute of Anne (1710)—the first copyright law

Browse: from Charlotte Lennox, Shakespear Illustrated: “Observations on the Use Shakespeare has made of the Foregoing History of Macbeth” (269-292)

Feb 9

Immanuel Kant, from The Critique of Judgment (on Genius)

BROWSE: from the correspondence of Samuel Richardson and “Belfour” (Lady Bradshaigh) (177-206)

Charlotte Bronte, from “Tales of the Islanders“

William Makepeace Thackeray, from Rebecca and Rowena (Chap. I)

M. Barrie, “The Two Imposters”

Dorothy L. Sayers, “On Dr. Watson’s Christian Name”

Veronica Horwell, “Champagne from a Slipper: When Fandom was Acceptably Male”

History: Star Trek, Zines, and the Birth of Media Fandom

Feb 11

Star Trek (from “Mirror Mirror”; “Amok Time”; “This Side of Paradise”) Required: relevant clips; Suggested: entire episodes

Henry Jenkins, “Textual Poachers” (Reader)

Constance Penley, “Future Men” (Reader)

Roland Barthes, “Death of the Author”

Feb 16

Dorothy L. Sayers, “A Tribute to Sherlock Holmes on the Occasion of his 100th Birthday”

BROWSE: Jacqueline Lichtenberg et al., Kraith (and selected stories by precept)

Fic: 73-105, incl. Andy Sawyer, “Tales of the Irish Fandom”; Jacqueline Lichtenberg, “Memories of a Collating Party”

Contemporary Contexts: PinkElegance (Amaya Radjani)’s “Sexy Beast” (look to get an idea of the uses fan writers still make of the Mirror Verse. We’ll revisit this story April 1-6) Spock/Uhura racefail prevention post. (We’ll revisit this discussion March 9)



History: Early Internet Fandom

Feb 18

Watch: The X-Files: “José Chung’s From Outer Space”

from Fic: 112-130, incl. Bethan Jones, “The G-Woman and the Fowl One”

Jane Mortimer, “The Sin Eater”

_________, “The Same Everywhere”

Anne Haynes, “Sleep is Sweeter” (Aftermath)—missing scene from the episode, based on the sonnet by Christina Rossetti

Madeleine Partous, “Ode to Paula Graves”

Feb 23

Fic: 131-148, incl.

Viewing: Buffy “The Wish”

Annakovsky, “Morituri Te Salutamus”

mommanerd, “Who’s Been Shagging in My Bed”

BROWSE: Multiple Authors, “Doyle Investigations”

Joseph Anderson, “Scully, Warrior Princess”

Lunacy, “The History of Xena Fan Fiction on the Internet”

Amber Benson, “Blurring the Lines” (Fic)

Sara Gwenllian Jones, “The Sex Lives of Cult Television Characters” (Reader)

Feb 25 ELEMENTARY, a Skype conversation with writers from the series

Viewing TBA

Vincent Starrett, “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes”

____________, “The Adventures of the Unique Hamlet”

Rex Stout, “Watson was a Woman”

from breathedout, “How the Mouth Changes its Shape”

Short Paper #1 Due

Mar 2 HARRY POTTER, a conversation with fandom veterans

with Flourish Klink, Fangirl, and Aja Romano, Fandom reporter for The Daily Dot

Eliezer Yudkowsky, from “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality”

from Fic, Heidi Tandy, Chris Rankin, “Percy Weasley’s University Thesis”

other fanfics TBA

The Changing Faces of Fanfiction Today

March 4

Sherclop Pones, “Friendship is Witchcraft”

Peter Berg, “Hobbyhorsing” (Fic)

Bad Horse, “The Magician and the Detective”

Characters as Animals—student choice—one Sherlock (example, manul!John; Fawnlock; Parrotlock; Waterfowllock); one the fandom of your choice.

Special Assignment: Attend a performance of Baskerville at the McCarter Theater, March 10-29. Read Francesca Coppa, “Writing Bodies in Space: Media Fan Fiction as Theatrical Performance” (Reader). Write journal entry about the performance with reference to the essay. Post with picture of your ticket stub, you at theater, etc.

March 9 Transcultural Fandom

Special guest Dr. Lori Morimoto (acafanmom), fan studies scholar

Henry Jenkins, “Pop Cosmopolitanism: Mapping Cultural Flows in an Age of Media Convergence,” in Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco and Desiree Baolian Qin-Hilliard, eds., Globalization: Culture and Education in the New Millennium (pp. 114-140)

Koichi Iwabuchi, “Undoing Inter-National Fandom in the Age of Brand Nationalism,” Mechademia 5

Laura Miller, “Extreme Makeover for a Heian-Era Wizard,” Mechademia 3

Rukmini Pande and Samira Nadkarni, “From a Land Where ‘Other’ People Live” (Fic)

A Conversation with Amaya Radjani

fanfic TBA

March 11

thisprettywren, “Quintessential”

falling voices, “The Theory of Narrative Causality”

Ivy Blossom, experiments in voice (first chapters of “The Progress of Sherlock Holmes” and “The Quiet Man”)

BROWSE: Welcome To Night Vale: The Strex Family, Desert Bluffs Carlos

March 13 Midterm Exam Due in Preceptor Mailbox by 5 PM

SPRING BREAK

Mar 23

Wordstrings, The Paradox Series

Mar 25 The Empty Hearse and its Controversies

Selected articles (Emily Nussbaum, Elizabeth Minkel, Laurie Penny, reviews)

Viewing: Sherlock: “The Empty Hearse”

Mid0nz, selected meta

TONIGHT: PANEL DISCUSSION (Required)

7 PM “Where Do We Go From Here?”: Fans, Fanworks, and the Media, Publishing, and Entertainment Industries a discussion with special guests Emily Nussbaum, television critic for The New Yorker; Jamie Broadnax of Black Girl Nerds, Elizabeth Minkel, of The Millions and The New Statesman, and Heidi Tandy, intellectual property attorney and longtime fan. Required of all students; journal entry due April 1. Free and open to the public.

March 30

from Fandom at the Crossroads, “And the (Fourth) Walls Came Tumbling Down”

VIEWING: Supernatural (episode TBA)

Jules Wilkinson, “The Epic Love Story of Supernatural and Fanfic” (Fic)

Short Paper #2 due

April 1

pennypaperbrain, from “Four Corners of the Western World”

__________, meta on “How to Write Realistic BDSM”

etothepii, from “things you don’t tell me” series

April 6 Omegaverse—by student choice

Kristina Busse, “Pon Farr, MPreg, Bonds, and the Rise of the Omegaverse” (Fic)

How Twific Broke All the Rules and Eventually Itself

April 8 Revisiting The Mary Sue

With Guest Cyndy Aleo, freelance writer and editor, self-published author, senior reviewer at RT Book Reviews, and fandom ranter (Algonquinrt/d0tpark3r)

BellaFlan (Isabella Flanagan), from “Becoming Bella Swan”

Randi Flanagan, “Becoming Bella Swan” (Fic)

Cyndy Aleo, “On Writing—and Being—A Mary Sue” (Fic)

d0tpark3r/Algonquinrt, from “Mr. Horrible”

TheKing, from “Gynazole”/Debra Anastasia, from Fire Down Below

April 13 Excerpts from the following:

Snowqueens Icedragon, Master of the Universe; E. L. James, Fifty Shades of Grey

Tara Sue Me, The Submissive

tby789, “The Office”/ Christina Lauren, Beautiful Bastard

Twilightzoner, “Midnight Desire”

Stephenie Meyer, “Midnight Sun”

Browse Fic “The Twilight Fandom,” 177-253

April 15 A Conversation with Lev Grossman

from Lev Grossman, The Magicians

Fay Jay, “The Student Prince”

student choice college or school AU

Short Paper #3 due

April 20

from Anna Todd (Imaginator 1D), “After” (Wattpad)

from kxfinity, “Kim Kardashian Trapped in her Own Game”

from aimmyarrowshigh, “May You Enjoy your New Life”

Brad Bell, #BradamForever (Fic)

An Interview with Doug Wright (Fic)

Arrow, “Real Person(a) Fiction” (Fic)

April 22

from Craig Dworkin, “Chapter XXIV” (Missing Chapter of Tristram Shandy)

from Kenneth Goldsmith, Day

Darren Wershler, “Conceptual Writing as Fanfic” (Fic)

Kevin Power, “Economy”(A conceptual fanfiction of Darren Wershler’s essay)

Stephen Burt, “Poems About Superheroes”

Rae Armantrout, “America”

Interview with Jonathan Lethem (Fic)

April 27 A Conversation with Doris Egan, Television writer/producer

House, Smallville, Reign, and others

VIEWING: House, “House vs God” (Season 2, on Netflix)

koimistress, “Mercy”

April 29

Welcome to Sanditon (Pemberly Digital)

Mallory Ortberg, Texts from Jane Eyre

Group Interviews Due