Graduation Year
Spring 2013
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
English
Reader 1
Kimberly Drake
Reader 2
Jacqueline Wernimont
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2013 Anne Dreshfield
Abstract
This paper examines online fan fiction communities as spaces for identity formation, collaborative creativity, and fan empowerment. Drawing on case studies of a LiveJournal fan fiction community, fan-written essays, possible world theory, and postmodern theories of the hyperreal and simulacrum, this paper argues that writing fan fiction is a definitive, postmodern act that explores the mutable boundaries of reality and fiction. It concludes that fans are no longer passive consumers of popular media—rather, they are engaged, powerful participants in the creation of celebrity representation that can, ultimately, alter reality.
Recommended Citation
Dreshfield, Anne C., ""All are finally fictions": Fan Fiction as Creative Empowerment Through the Re-Writing of "Reality"" (2013). Scripps Senior Theses. 237.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/237
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
