A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant portion of their time and energy involved with their interest,often as a part of a social network with particular practices,differentiating fandom-affiliated people from those with only a casual interest.
Slash fiction is a genre of fan fiction that focuses on romantic or sexual relationships between fictional characters of the same sex. While the term "slash" originally referred only to stories in which male characters are involved in an explicit sexual relationship as a primary plot element,it is now also used to refer to any fan story containing a romantic pairing between same-sex characters. Many fans distinguish slash with female characters as a separate genre,commonly referred to as femslash.
Among science fiction and fantasy,comic book,and media fans,a Big Name Fan (BNF) is a member of a fandom who is particularly well-known and celebrated for their writings in fanzines,semi-professional magazines and blogs;or for other contributions such as art and fanfiction. Some BNFs have also contributed to the franchise itself. They may have fans of their own,who praise them and seek out their work.
Shipping is the desire by followers of a fandom for two or more people,either real-life people or fictional characters,to be in a romantic or sexual relationship. Shipping often takes the form of unofficial creative works,including fanfiction and fan art.
A beta reader is a test reader of an unreleased work of writing,typically literature,who gives feedback to the author from the point of view of an average reader. This feedback can be used by the writer to fix remaining issues with plot,pacing,and consistency. The beta reader also serves as a sounding board to see if the work has the intended intellectual or emotional impact on the target market.
In subcultural and fictional uses,a mundane is a person who does not belong to a particular group,according to the members of that group;the implication is that such persons,lacking imagination,are concerned solely with the mundane:the quotidian and ordinary. The term first came into use in science fiction fandom to refer,sometimes deprecatingly,to non-fans;this use of the term antedates 1955.
Fanfiction has encountered problems with intellectual property law due to usage of copyrighted characters without the original creator or copyright owner's consent.
MediaWest*Con is one of the largest and longest running media-based fan-run conventions in the United States. It is held annually over Memorial Day weekend in Lansing,Michigan. The convention emerged in the late 1970s,beginning as T'Con in 1978 and 2'Con in 1979 before taking on the name MediaWest*Con in 1981. The convention remains the world's largest gathering of Fanzine writers,artists,and publishers,and for decades was the event where most new science fiction and fantasy Fanzines were released. The annual "Fan Quality Awards" for Fanzine excellence,known as the "Fan Q's",have been given out at MediaWest*Con since 1981. In addition,the convention's art show has been the principal location for the display and sale of published Fanzine art and illustrations.
The yaoi fandom consists of the readers of yaoi,a genre of male homosexual narratives. Individuals in the yaoi fandom may attend conventions,maintain/post to fansites,create fanfiction/fanart,etc. In the mid-1990s,estimates of the size of the Japanese yaoi fandom were at 100,000–500,000 people. Despite increased knowledge of the genre among the general public,readership remains limited in 2008. English-language fan translations of From Eroica with Love circulated through the slash fiction community in the 1980s,forging a link between slash fiction fandom and yaoi fandom.
Fan labor,also called fan works,are the creative activities engaged in by fans,primarily those of various media properties or musical groups. These activities can include creation of written works,visual or computer-assisted art,films and videos,animations,games,music,or applied arts and costuming.
A Mary Sue is a character archetype in fiction,usually a young woman,who is often portrayed as inexplicably competent across all domains,gifted with unique talents or powers,liked or respected by most other characters,unrealistically free of weaknesses,extremely attractive,innately virtuous,and/or generally lacking meaningful character flaws. Usually female and almost always the main character,a Mary Sue is often an author's idealized self-insertion,and may serve as a form of wish fulfillment. Mary Sue stories are often written by adolescent authors.
Fan fiction or fanfiction is fictional writing written in an amateur capacity by fans,unauthorized by,but based on an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters,settings,or other intellectual properties from the original creator(s) as a basis for their writing. Fan fiction ranges from a couple of sentences to an entire novel,and fans can retain the creator's characters and settings and/or add their own. It is a form of fan labor. Fan fiction can be based on any fictional subject. Common bases for fan fiction include novels,movies,comics,musical groups,cartoons,anime,manga,and video games.
The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) is a nonprofit,fan activist organization. Its mission is to serve fans by preserving and encouraging transformative fan activity,known as "fanwork",and by making fanwork widely accessible.
Transformative Works and Cultures is a peer-reviewed open access academic journal published by the Organization for Transformative Works. The journal collects essays,articles,book reviews,and shorter pieces that concern fandom,fanworks,and fan practices. According to Humanities,Arts,Science and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory (HASTAC),the journal "supports the [Organization for Transformative Works's] mission to promote the legitimacy and sustainability of non-commercial fan creativity by providing a forum for innovative criticism in fan studies,broadly conceived."
Archive of Our Own is a nonprofit open source repository for fanfiction and other fanworks contributed by users. The site was created in 2008 by the Organization for Transformative Works and went into open beta in 2009. As of 17 July 2023,Archive of Our Own hosts 11,420,000 works in over 59,190 fandoms. The site has received positive reception for its curation,organization and design,mostly done by readers and writers of fanfiction.
Fanlore is a wiki created to preserve the history of transformative works,as well as that of fans,and fandoms,with a focus on people and their activities rather than on fandom canon. The beta version of Fanlore launched in September 2008,and the wiki came out of beta in December 2010. As of January 2023,more than 60,753 pages have been created on Fanlore,with more than 1,212,678 edits made by more than 90,872 registered users. It passed a million edits in January 2021.
Omegaverse,also known as A/B/O,is a subgenre of speculative erotic fiction,and originally a subgenre of erotic slash fan fiction. Its premise is that a dominance hierarchy exists in humans,which are divided into dominant "alphas",neutral "betas",and submissive "omegas". This hierarchy determines how people interact with one another in romantic,erotic and sexual contexts.
Karen L. Hellekson is an American author and scholar who researches science fiction and fan studies. In the field of science fiction,she is known for her research on the alternate history genre,the topic of her 2001 book,The Alternate History:Refiguring Historical Time,and has also published on the author Cordwainer Smith. In fan studies,she is known for her work on fan fiction and the culture of the fan community. She has co-edited two essay collections on fan fiction with Kristina Busse,and in 2008,co-founded the academic journal,Transformative Works and Cultures,also with Busse.
Francesca Coppa is an American scholar whose research has encompassed British drama,performance studies and fan studies. In English literature,she is known for her work on the British writer Joe Orton;she edited several of his early novels and plays for their first publication in 1998–99,more than thirty years after his murder,and compiled an essay collection,Joe Orton:A Casebook (2003). She has also published on Oscar Wilde. In the fan-studies field,Coppa is known for documenting the history of media fandom and,in particular,of fanvids,a type of fan-made video. She co-founded the Organization for Transformative Works in 2007,originated the idea of interpreting fan fiction as performance,and in 2017,published the first collection of fan fiction designed for teaching purposes. As of 2021,Coppa is a professor of English at Muhlenberg College,Pennsylvania.
Fan studies is an academic discipline that analyses fans,fandoms,fan cultures and fan activities,including fanworks. It is an interdisciplinary field located at the intersection of the humanities and social sciences,which emerged in the early 1990s as a separate discipline,and draws particularly on audience studies and cultural studies.
