Adaptation: The Fanfiction of Academia?

Author

Manu Ritchie, University of Maine at Farmington

Date of Award

Spring 2024

Document Type

Research Project

Department

English

First Advisor

Michael Johnson

Second Advisor

Misty Krueger

Abstract

Adaptive works—pieces of media inspired by pre-existing works—are extremely

prevalent in the media landscape and have been for as long as humans have retold stories. A somewhat more recent edition to the conversation is fanfiction, or fan fiction, which is a unique form of audience interactivity that includes the writing of a work by a fan off of any given piece of media. This project explores the definitions, overlaps and delineations of adaptation, transmedial storytelling, transfictionality and fanfiction. It uses particular examples from published works of fanfiction to further unpack these categorizations and adds nuance and organization to studies on the overlaps of fanfiction and more officially-considered adaptive works. The project then exemplifies the variability of adaptive work by presenting an adapted screenplay and a fanfiction, both written off of a subplot of Charles Dickens’ 1864 novel Our Mutual Friend.

Comments

HON 499 Thesis or Creative/Service Project

Recommended Citation

Ritchie, Manu, "Adaptation: The Fanfiction of Academia?" (2024). HON 499 Honors Thesis or Creative Project. 23.
https://scholarworks.umf.maine.edu/honors_theses/23