Fan fiction is predicated on using established characters in established texts, whether novels, films, or television series. Sometimes the characters might behave as they do in canon, or they may deviate is ways that range from slightly off to wildly out of character (OOC). But what happens in fan fiction when a writer introduces a completely original character, one who does not appear in the canon text, but is a new invention? In other words: “Who the heck is THAT guy?”
I will be examining the use of OC’s (original characters), using my own Queer as Folk fan fiction series, Queer Theories, as an example. Original characters are a problematic and controversial concept, much debated in the fan fiction world. How do they fit into the universe of the canon text? How do they interact with canon characters? And, most importantly, how are they accepted (or not accepted) by readers? Bringing original characters into the narrative can be a deal-breaker for some readers, but other readers welcome them, seeing them as opening up the narrative to other possibilities and expanding the story beyond its usual closed-off canon universe. And many fan fiction writers are conflicted about the use of OC’s. Where is the line drawn when fan fiction becomes something else? And what IS that something else? And, finally, are OC’s simply another name for that dread construct, the Mary Sue?
About the presenterGael Anne Sweeney
I teach in Syracuse University’s Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Composition in the areas of Queer Culture, Popular Culture, and Creative Nonfiction. I’ve given and published papers on everything from Elvis Presley, Hugh Grant, Cary Grant, and The Beatles, to The Lion King, A Christmas Story, Ed Wood, and Showtime’s Queer as Folk, everywhere from Harvard to the University of Newcastle. I’ve recently taught “The Culture of Fandom,” “Questioning Gender,” and “Reading Popular Culture.”