The aesthetics of fan fiction : an ontological study of ‘Rosario+Vampire’ fanon in Fanfiction.net.

• Main Author: Mohamad Abdul Halim Aziz.
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Literature
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/52308
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Fan fiction. The term itself would bring shivers of incredulity in many professional writers. Commonly thought of as pleasure-deriving work by a person who is a, “hobbyist, knowledgeable or otherwise, someone who does not make a living from his or her field of interest, a layperson, lacking credentials, a dabbler.” (Keen, 36), derivative works which fan fiction actually is not a new phenomenon. Instead it is like a hole in a tank that is slowly getting bigger such that people are finally seeing its impact on the newly carpeted floor that is the literary world. Why is fan fiction given a negative connotation? Is it as simple as it is made out to be? Can it be anything more than a label of condescension? This thesis aims to answer just that by identifying the ways in how Internet fan fiction have transgressed the narratives of their canon and in doing so to analyse the ontological aspects of fan fiction. With that in mind, where do we begin? In my opinion, it would be logical to think like a fan for it is for fan fiction and their writers that this thesis is partly for. There will be no Marquez here or even Shakespeare. Joyce and Thumboo belong to another era. No, this is the era of fiction read by the teenage schoolgirl and the suburban family man. The informality that such a situation presents for itself warrants the use of an unorthodox piece of text. For such a purpose, let me introduce the manga „Rosario-Vampire‟.