As you see already, I think, anyone trying to put forward an exclusive definition is going to fail. Fanfiction as written by those of us who identify it as such is taking part in the same literary tradition as the authors on bookshop's list. I would hazard that is the same tradition that copyright law has, very clumsily, attempted to acknowledge with clauses about parody and transformation, and the limits on what can actually be copyrighted. So one way to describe it is as part of a much larger tradition.
On the other hand, as Kaigou has pointed out, that list misses a lot of what goes into creating fanfic (as self-identified), which involves fandom--as a community, as an ethos, as an economy. So another way to describe it is as a result of the community of fans, a hallmark of which is the gift economy.
One can describe fanfic as anything that deliberately uses and refers to another writer's world and characters. One can equally well describe it as anything that overwrites the original with a different (sometimes vastly different) version to suit the writer's own desires.
Anyone trying to come up with a total definition is instantly going to fail when someone pops up to say "but that doesn't cover /this/", which I suspect may be why OTW didn't try.
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And every single one of them is right
Date: 2010-06-04 05:35 pm (UTC)As you see already, I think, anyone trying to put forward an exclusive definition is going to fail. Fanfiction as written by those of us who identify it as such is taking part in the same literary tradition as the authors on bookshop's list. I would hazard that is the same tradition that copyright law has, very clumsily, attempted to acknowledge with clauses about parody and transformation, and the limits on what can actually be copyrighted. So one way to describe it is as part of a much larger tradition.
On the other hand, as Kaigou has pointed out, that list misses a lot of what goes into creating fanfic (as self-identified), which involves fandom--as a community, as an ethos, as an economy. So another way to describe it is as a result of the community of fans, a hallmark of which is the gift economy.
One can describe fanfic as anything that deliberately uses and refers to another writer's world and characters. One can equally well describe it as anything that overwrites the original with a different (sometimes vastly different) version to suit the writer's own desires.
Anyone trying to come up with a total definition is instantly going to fail when someone pops up to say "but that doesn't cover /this/", which I suspect may be why OTW didn't try.