Showing papers in "Transformative Works and Cultures in 2017"
TL;DR: In the special issue of Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 24 (June 15, 2017) as mentioned in this paper, Levin Russo and Eve Ng published an editorial for "Queer female fandom," edited by Levin Russo.
Abstract: Editorial for "Queer female fandom," edited by Julie Levin Russo and Eve Ng, special issue, Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 24 (June 15, 2017).
44 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the concept of queerbaiting as emergent from viewer readings of both textual and paratextual content at a particular juncture of LGBT media representation.
Abstract: I discuss the concept of queerbaiting as emergent from viewer readings of both textual and paratextual content at a particular juncture of LGBT media representation. While fan works as paratexts have attracted attention for their queered readings and narratives, there has been little scholarly consideration of how official paratexts that suggest or address queer readings, particularly promotional material and public commentary from producers, inform viewer engagement with media texts, and how they interact with contemporary conditions of media production and LGBT content. Examining F/F pairings from two television shows, Rizzoli & Isles (TNT, 2010–16) and The 100 (CW, 2014–), I propose a model that incorporates text, paratext, and the context of LGBT representation to account for how both noncanonical and canonically queer narratives can exemplify queerbaiting discourses, as well as where queer subtextual readings are positioned in this interpretative space. In addition, I highlight the historical contingency of queerbaiting in terms of shifts in producer/viewer interactions and the character of LGBT narratives in reshaping the contestation of media meaning making.
23 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine how audiences form counter-publics to read and respond to these works in comments and on blogs and explore how and why producers conceived of these series alongside how viewing publics interpreted and consumed them.
Abstract: — For black creators, television remains an elusive yet illustrious art form. Corporate television networks have restricted access to black writers, limiting black representations. However, through a more open distribution system on the Internet, black writers have expanded the art of television, producing stories in a wider range of genres through a variety of intersectional identities and intersecting art forms. Here we interrogate indie black cultural production to first locate how writers queer traditional television production. We then examine how audiences form counterpublics to read and respond to these works in comments and on blogs. We engage a broad array of popular indie series whose creators span identities and whose narratives span genres, including the black queer and lesbian dramas Between Women (2011–present) and No Shade (2013–2015) as well as the comedic black gay pilots Twenties (2013) and Words with Girls (2012–2014). We explore how and why producers conceived of these series alongside how viewing publics interpreted and consumed them. To varying degrees, these series queer not only the norms of television production and form but also of viewership and audience response.
22 citations
TL;DR: Rosenblatt and Pearson as mentioned in this paper published a special issue on "Sherlock Holmes Fandom, Sherlockiana, and the Great Game," edited by Betsy Rosenblatt, and Roberta Pearson, special issue, Transformative Works and Cultures.
Abstract: Editorial for "Sherlock Holmes Fandom, Sherlockiana, and the Great Game," edited by Betsy Rosenblatt and Roberta Pearson, special issue, Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 23 (March 15, 2017).
16 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used e-mail interviews with nine female fans to explore what it means to be a fan over the age of 50 of the popular BBC drama Sherlock (2010-2013).
Abstract: This article uses e-mail interviews with nine female fans to explore what it means to be a fan over the age of 50 of the popular BBC drama Sherlock (2010–). The research aims to better understand the role of fandom in later life, in particular how the participants in this study negotiate their perceptions of their subjective age in relation to being a fan in this part of their life course. This study combines theory on cultural gerontology with fan studies and mediatization theory in order to understand the dynamics and processes that guide fans' negotiations of subjective age as well as the role of fan practices and the affordances of social media in these processes. I argue that fandom, as a manifestation of a mediatized culture, augments the relevance of subjective age and informs the way in which participants in middle and later life perceive and negotiate their own subjective age specifically in relation to fandom as youth culture, women's passion, and creativity.
12 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the femslash fandoms of Once Upon a Time, focusing on the relationship of Regina Mills and Emma Swan, eponymously known as Swan Queen.
Abstract: Online media or participatory fandom has long been theorized as a unique creative and communicative space for women. Further, scholarly work has highlighted the possibility of it functioning as a space that is conducive to the articulation of queerness—both through transformative work and participant identity. However, this theorization has failed to account for the differential operations of these spaces when they are forced to deal with issues of race and racism. This essay argues that this is a significant blind spot as fannish spaces cannot but negotiate with the multiple loci of privilege and intersectional concerns that underpin their functioning. It therefore proposes a significant intervention in the study of the same, drawing our attention to the historically queer and oft-sidelined fannish spaces of femslash fandoms. This analysis seeks to locate the ways in which such queer spaces grapple with critiques of misogyny and homophobia in popular cultural texts and online spaces, as well as the problematics of race and racial identity within such spaces, focusing on the queer fan community built around the relationship of Regina Mills and Emma Swan, eponymously known as Swan Queen, in the television show Once Upon a Time (2011–).
8 citations
TL;DR: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (WWoHP) as mentioned in this paper offers material interfaces that engage multiple senses (touch, taste, and smell, as well as the sight and sound of more conventional narrative forms) to facilitate immersion in imaginary story worlds.
Abstract: Theme parks such as Universal Orlando's Wizarding World of Harry Potter (WWoHP) offer material interfaces that engage multiple senses (touch, taste, and smell, as well as the sight and sound of more conventional narrative forms) to facilitate immersion in imaginary story worlds. They thus offer new aspects of both fan tourism and material fan practices to explore. Both fan studies and current scholarship on theme parks emphasize active participatory conceptions, countering oversimplifications and misrepresentations of both audiences and theme park visitors as passive spectators or consumers. Corporate-created and -controlled theme parks frame and market fan activities to encourage consumption. Yet fans often use merchandise as additional interfaces to participate actively and to facilitate immersion. For example, in WWoHP, interactive wands use technology to create specific physical "spell" effects in specific locations. Both wands and spells act as a synecdoche for the story world's magic, enabling immersion.
7 citations
TL;DR: Fan fiction is overwhelmingly digital in both publication and dissemination; however, traditional fannish mores insist that fan work should never be done for profit, and yet numerous print works adapted from fan fiction have become best sellers as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Contemporary fan fiction is overwhelmingly digital in both publication and dissemination; it has never been easier to access this subculture of writers and writing. However, fan fiction in print has likewise never been so accessible, as a slew of recent popular novels proudly proclaim their fannish origins and make claims such as "More Than 2 Million Reads Online—FIRST TIME IN PRINT!" Further, traditional fannish mores insist that fan work should never be done for profit, and yet numerous print works adapted from fan fiction have become best sellers. I would like to problematize how we consider form and content in both creation and reception, how the popular value of work waxes and wanes in relation to its fan fiction status. In other words, how can we read fan fiction as part of a continuum of historical publication practices by women, and problematize our hierarchies of value between print and digital?
5 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a metaphorical theory of vidding as an AR technology and contextualizing femslash fan vids is presented, along with a curatorial essay offering a metaphoric theory of virtual reality and a selection of works with artist notes including "Come On" by here's luck (2002); "These Two Arms" by Killa (2006); "Vitalum Vitalis" by hollywoodgrrl and ohvienna (2014); "Past the Feeling" by Anoel (2013); "Lightning Field" by bradcpu (2012);
Abstract: This gallery opens with a curatorial essay offering a metaphorical theory of vidding as an AR technology and contextualizing femslash fan vids. The selection of works with artist notes includes "Come On" by here's luck (2002); "These Two Arms" by Killa (2006); "Vitalum Vitalis" by hollywoodgrrl and ohvienna (2014); "Past the Feeling" by Anoel (2013); "Lightning Field" by bradcpu (2012); "Gimme Sympathy" by beerbad (2014); "I Do Adore" by kiki_miserychic (2014); "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Mithborien (2015); "Hurricane" by Laura Shapiro (2010); "Hands Away" by chaila and beccatoria (2011); "The Coming Out of Quinn Fabray" by jarrow (2011).
4 citations
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TL;DR: The term yuri, referring to lesbian-themed Japanese animation and comics, is both descriptive and divisive, shaped by creators and industry and by different audiences within fandom as discussed by the authors. And the story of yuri is a story of a genre driven forward and backward between conflicting requirements and heterogeneous audiences
Abstract: The term yuri, referring to lesbian-themed Japanese animation and comics, is both descriptive and divisive, shaped by creators and industry and by different audiences within fandom. The story of yuri is the story of a genre driven forward and backward between conflicting requirements and heterogeneous audiences.
4 citations
TL;DR: The Lego Movie, the highest grossing animation film of 2014, surprised and impressed children, adults, and critics worldwide as discussed by the authors, and the Lego Group became the world's biggest toymaker in the following year.
Abstract: The LEGO Movie , the highest-grossing animation film of 2014, surprised and impressed children, adults, and critics worldwide. The film's transfranchisal approach and its clever merchandising helped the Lego Group become the world's biggest toymaker in the following year. In order to provide context for understanding the Lego comeback, we first address the corporate history of the Lego Group and how its product range has developed over the years. Next, we take a closer look at adult fans of Lego (AFOL), in particular a German fan club that considers Lego building to be a form of art. The final part of our paper deals with brickfilming as a cultural practice bringing together fans, the brand, Lego-building, and filmmaking. Taking The LEGO Movie and the overwhelmingly positive response to it as a starting point for cultural analysis helps to deepen our understanding of contemporary media production and resulting (trans)formations of fan phenomena. Furthermore, investigating Lego allows us to tackle some of the key rules and mechanisms underlying cultural participation and creativity today. Ultimately, the difficult past and current success of the Lego brick may attest to the often challenged yet sometimes reaffirmed status of tangible objects in a now predominantly digitally mediated era.
TL;DR: This paper explored femslash fan fiction published and circulated on feise chaonu (FSCN), one of the most popular Mainland Chinese femslashing fandoms of 2006 Super Girl participants.
Abstract: A globally formatted, Idol -style, reality singing contest produced by a Chinese provincial TV station, Super Girl (SG; Hunan Satellite TV, 2004–2006) received staggeringly huge commercial success nationwide. It only allowed female participants and featured a large number of gender-defying finalists. This article explores femslash fan fiction published and circulated on feise chaonu (FSCN), one of the most popular Mainland Chinese femslash fandoms of 2006 SG participants. The lesbian romance depicted in FSCN fan fiction is inspired by and further articulates the intentionally "queered" content of SG. However, these lesbian stories are often narrated within culturally distant, fictional settings, such as Western, futuristic, or historical backdrops. My reading of FSCN femslash fan fiction explores how and why this prevailing, yet self-contradictory, femslash writing strategy helps the fans to queerly construct an "alternate world" that enacts, facilitates, or legitimizes Chinese lesbianism. I reveal the underlying ways in which this FSCN worlding practice ambiguously appropriates and ridicules contemporary Chinese female gender- and sexuality-related norms and ideals. Ultimately, I argue that the "worlded" contexts and plotlines of queer fantasy in FSCN femslash can be construed as active fannish responses to and negotiations with the realities and histories of Chinese lesbian-related public cultures.
TL;DR: Results show that there is indeed, a little known and lesser understood ‘dark side’ to fanfiction, in regard to how it is understood and valued, which feeds an invisible, black hole in the authors' cultural landscape.
Abstract: Although several notable collections of fanfiction exist in libraries such as the Sandy Hereld Fanzine Collection at Texas A&M University(http://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/149935), and the digital fanzine archives at the University of Iowa(http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/sc/resources/fandomresources/), the attention given to the systematic selection, acquisition, indexing, preservation and sharing of fanworks is not as notable in the UK as it might be, given the popularity of fandom, the volume of creative works that exists, and the rate at which new texts are produced. This paper presents the results of an investigation into the extent to which fanfiction is collected and managed by UK libraries, and attempts to ascertain the reasons underlying collection policy in local, public, special, academic and national institutions.This report is based on a review of recent literature, an analysis of the collection policies of a selection of UK libraries, and a brief survey of the views of Library & Information Science students. The empirical work was carried out in Spring 2016. Results show that there is indeed, a little known and lesser understood ‘dark side’ to fanfiction, in regard to how it is understood and valued, which feeds an invisible, black hole in our cultural he
TL;DR: This article focused on a series of industry scandals that created a need for and the development of a lesbian story line on Grey's Anatomy (ABC, 2005) and created a lesbian-focused fan group dedicated to the lesbian pairing.
Abstract: This analysis focuses on a series of industry scandals that created a need for and the development of a lesbian story line on Grey's Anatomy (ABC, 2005–), resulting in the creation of a lesbian-focused fan group dedicated to the lesbian pairing, Erica_Callie on LiveJournal. The resulting constructed representation portrays authentic lesbian and bisexual characters on mainstream broadcast television, promising inclusion to those who identify with these characters.
TL;DR: Cranfield as mentioned in this paper reviewed the Twentieth-century Victorian: Arthur Conan Doyle and the "Strand Magazine," 1891-1930, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016, hardcover, £75 (256p) ISBN 978-1474406758; e-book £75, ISBN 9781474406772.
Abstract: Review of Jonathan Cranfield, Twentieth-century Victorian: Arthur Conan Doyle and the "Strand Magazine," 1891–1930. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016, hardcover, £75 (256p) ISBN 978-1474406758; e-book, £75, ISBN 978-1474406772.
TL;DR: The authors reinterpreted the Superman origin story that explicitly highlights the hero's own innate transness, and used this reinterpretation to reinterpret the origin story of a comic book character.
Abstract: While a noteworthy body of scholarship exists that "queers" the superhero, few attempts have been made to "trans" such famous comic book characters. I offer an introduction to trans identities via my own personal narrative and a cursory example of trans reading practices within the fields of comics and fandom studies. Writing as a trans f/m (fan and man), I set out to trans superheroes and also to rethink the temporal space of boyhood, which is typically positioned as the supposed beginning of one's manhood and one's passion for comic book heroes. As an example of this reading strategy, I offer a reinterpretation of the Superman origin story that explicitly highlights the hero's own innate transness.
TL;DR: The authors used a case study from the Hockey RPF community to explore textual processes in Real Person(a) Fiction, and particularly the intertextual relationship between different facets of the star image and the RPF character.
Abstract: This paper uses a case study from the Hockey RPF community to explore textual processes in Real Person(a) Fiction, and particularly the intertextual relationship between different facets of the star image and the RPF character. I argue that the crisis in legitimacy faced by the fandom revealed a dense of web of intertextuality between the celebrity’s public and official private personas, the imagined real person behind them, and the RPF character, all involved in a “side by side” reading (Derecho 2006) of the similarities and differences between the celebrity fan object and the fan work. I build on Derecho’s (2006) concept of archontic literature as well as Stasi’s (2006) concept of “intertextuality in the second degree” to highlight the complex relationship between celebrity persona, RPF character, and other seemingly unrelated elements which may be drawn into an “archive” by RPF readers and writers and show the collectively created RPF character was overwhelmed by these other elements.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the reactions of Sherlock Holmes fans and enthusiasts to assertions of intellectual property ownership and infringement by putative rights holders in two eras of Sherlockian history and explore possible reasons why Sherlockian fandom might differ from other fandoms in this respect.
Abstract: This essay explores the reactions of Sherlock Holmes fans and enthusiasts to assertions of intellectual property ownership and infringement by putative rights holders in two eras of Sherlockian history. In both the 1946–47 and 2013–15 eras, Sherlock Holmes devotees villainized the entities claiming ownership of intellectual property in Holmes, distancing those entities from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and casting them as greedy and morally bankrupt. Throughout each era, Sherlockians did not shy away from creating transformative works based on the Holmes canon over the objections of putative rights holders. This complicates the usual expectation that copyright assertions against fans are likely to chill fan production. The essay explores possible reasons why Sherlockian fandom might differ from other fandoms in this respect, including the role of the Great Game form of Sherlockian fandom in shaping fan attitudes toward their subject.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors trace older and newer Sherlockian enthusiasms; their points of entry; the creative manifestations of these fandoms over time and through various media; and the emerging challenges and opportunities presented to library and archival professionals by the explosive growth of creative works, especially those produced during the last decade.
Abstract: Since 1887, in sometimes cosmic fashion, nearly every medium and format has been used in sharing the original 60 Sherlock Holmes adventures along with their pastiche and parodying offspring. Such creative energy is evidence of a literary big bang, and an expanding universe of creative possibilities, many of them now born digital or residing on digital platforms. We trace older and newer Sherlockian enthusiasms; their points of entry; the creative manifestations of these fandoms over time and through various media; and the emerging challenges and opportunities presented to library and archival professionals by the explosive growth of creative works, especially those produced during the last decade. Curatorial actions involving acquisition, preservation, description, and user discovery of these materials are considered alongside the relationship building necessary between curator and fan in acquiring evolving, dynamic new Sherlockian expressions and insights.
TL;DR: This paper investigated how fans explore queer scenarios and deal with narrative weaknesses of the canon story line in Once Upon a Time (2011) and its femslash fan fiction in order to investigate how fans explored queer scenarios.
Abstract: I approach the topic of queer female fandom through the television program Once Upon a Time (2011–) and its femslash fan fiction in order to investigate how fans explore queer scenarios and deal with narrative weaknesses of the canon story line.
TL;DR: Autostraddle.com is the most popular independently owned Web site for queer women and a central, organizing force in queer female cyberspace as discussed by the authors, though its appearance now occludes the history of fan recapping that laid its groundwork.
Abstract: Autostraddle.com is the most popular independently owned Web site for queer women and a central, organizing force in queer female cyberspace. It also grew out of The L Word fandom, though its appearance now occludes the history of fan recapping that laid its groundwork. In this article, I reconnect Autostraddle to The L Word fandom, tracing the gradual accumulation of online fan activity into a stable Web site and queer female social space. In doing so, I revise dominant conceptions of fan productivity as individual-centered and temporally bound, arguing for a more expansive consideration of the large-scale creations fans can build over time. My intervention is twofold: a plea for history where the Web can seem to be an eternally present medium, and an assertion of fandom's inseparability from the larger landscape of queer female life online.
TL;DR: The Strand's more popular sister magazine, Tit-Bits, played a significant role in establishing Sherlock Holmes as a literary and cultural icon, particularly through its use of participatory practices, cross-promotion, and transmedia storytelling.
Abstract: The Strand 's more popular sister magazine, Tit-Bits, played a significant role in establishing Sherlock Holmes as a literary and cultural icon, particularly through its use of participatory practices, cross-promotion, and transmedia storytelling. I argue that Tit-Bits ' late 19th-century New Journalism techniques like contests and prizes, inquiry columns, correspondence, and internal advertising fostered a corporately devised participatory fandom that directly contributed to Sherlock Holmes's popularity. Tit-Bits audiences were invited and encouraged to imagine new scenarios for their favorite character that were validated through publication. Such practices not only created a unique identity for Sherlock Holmes fandom but also directly contributed to the creation and maintenance of Holmes's fictional world. With fandom studies reaching more and more audiences—both academic and popular—historicizing early fan practices like the early publication and reception of the Sherlock Holmes stories provides important insight into how audiences have historically responded to, and interacted with, fictional characters, and how they helped sustain and expand those characters' fictional worlds.
TL;DR: The early institutional history of the Baker Street Irregulars (BSI) fan club is described in this paper, where the authors track the BSI's development from a speakeasy gathering in 1934 to a national organization by the mid-1940s.
Abstract: This work provides and analyzes an early institutional history of the pioneering Sherlock Holmes American fan club, the Baker Street Irregulars (BSI). Using the publications and records of these devoted Sherlockians, I track the BSI's development from a speakeasy gathering in 1934 to a national organization by the mid-1940s. This growth was built on a foundation of Victorian nostalgia and playful humor. Yet at the same time the members of the Irregulars took their fandom seriously, producing Sherlockian scholarship and creating an infrastructure of journals, conferences, and credentialing that directly mimicked the academy. They positioned themselves in contrast to prevailing scholarly practices of the period, such as New Criticism. I trace both how their fan practices developed over time and how this conflict with the academy led to many of the BSI's defining characteristics.
TL;DR: This article argued that media driven by relationships between women are "structurally lesbian media" that generate femslash fandoms, drawing on Alexander Doty's argument that television shows with primary relationships between men are "lesbian sitcoms".
Abstract: Some texts are femslashier than others. Drawing on Alexander Doty's argument that television shows with primary relationships between women are "lesbian sitcoms," I argue that media driven by relationships between women are "structurally lesbian media" that generate femslash fandoms.
TL;DR: This article analyzed 4 years' worth of fan-targeted promotional campaigns on the official Teen Wolf (2011-2015) Tumblr to better situate, contextualize, and trace emerging trends like the evolution of fan/producer dynamics.
Abstract: Historically, fan scholars have focused on conducting deep dives into singular cases and revealing trends by comparing cross sections of those cases. While there is undeniable value in conducting close analyses of such instances, the reliance on this method can limit our assessment of long-running trends. By supplementing—or, more productively, combining—specific case studies with diachronic perspectives, we can better situate, contextualize, and trace emerging trends like the evolution of fan/producer dynamics. To model this approach, I analyze 4 years' worth of fan-targeted promotional campaigns on the official Teen Wolf (2011–) Tumblr. The activities—fannish and/or promotional—of all participants in a shared ecological system like Tumblr are significant. They continuously construct, deconstruct, nuance, and challenge the ever-evolving context of fandom and fan/producer dynamics. Supplementing a close analysis of one of Teen Wolf 's recent promotional campaigns—the commissioned #TeenWolfExhibit—with a diachronic perspective addresses the ever-evolving ecology of media fandom and traces the evolution of MTV's fannish literacy from 2011 to 2015. The #TeenWolfExhibit reproduces and reflects all the promotional successes, failures, and course corrections that predate it.
TL;DR: Sherlockian scholarship is a display of intellect, wit, and canonical expertise that requires a cunning manipulation of a story world and of nonfiction as discussed by the authors, and it is a style of writing that defies easy classification in the terminology of fan and literary studies.
Abstract: Sherlockian scholarship is a display of intellect, wit, and canonical expertise that requires a cunning manipulation of a story world and of nonfiction. This playful style of writing defies easy classification in the terminology of fan and literary studies. Emerging in the early 20th century, Sherlockian scholarship had a tremendous surge in popularity in the late 1920s and early '30s in articles by renowned British and American authors, including Dorothy L. Sayers, Christopher Morley, Sir Desmond MacCarthy, Sir Sydney Castle Roberts, and Ronald A. Knox. The sustained popularity of Sherlockian scholarship owes much to these initial players, whose sparkling prose conjures a bygone era of repartee. In this study, I present a chronological survey of two early periods in Sherlockian scholarship to understand its poetics, popularity, generic identity, and contemporary relevance.
TL;DR: The authors describe a study of how fans participate in memory-making activities, blending theories from collective memory and participatory culture, and find that these spaces have much to do with gender, generations, class, and cultural differences that helped regulate and even segregate different ways in which people were allowed to participate in the Sherlockian fandom.
Abstract: This essay describes a study of how fans participate in memory-making activities. I call this activity participatory memory, blending theories from collective memory and participatory culture. Interestingly, while studying spaces of memory for Sherlock Holmes (the Canon) and BBC's Sherlock (2010–), I began to realize that these spaces have much to do with gender, generations, class, and cultural differences that helped regulate (and even segregate) different ways in which people were allowed to participate in the Sherlockian fandom.
TL;DR: This article explored the history of Japanese writing centered on Sherlock Holmes as a means of interrogating the 2014 BBC Sherlock pastiche John and Sherlock Casebook 1: Jon, zenchi renmei e iku (The stark naked league), written by Japanese Sherlockian Kitahara Naohiko for mainstream publication by the publishing house Hayakawa shobō.
Abstract: I explore the history of Japanese writing centered on Sherlock Holmes as a means of interrogating the 2014 BBC Sherlock pastiche John and Sherlock Casebook 1: Jon, zenchi renmei e iku (The stark naked league), written by Japanese Sherlockian Kitahara Naohiko for mainstream publication by the publishing house Hayakawa shobō. I argue that exploration of the Japanese (fan) cultural contexts of Kitahara's book begins to reveal the limits of the Anglo-American-centered framework through which fan studies scholars explore fan/producer relationships.
TL;DR: The authors identify two main strands in the pastiche: one that aims to correct the mistakes and fill in the gaps in the original stories, and one that supplements the canon with stories Watson left untold.
Abstract: Rewritings and adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes stories are traditionally called pastiches among fandom. This article juxtaposes that established use with the literary critical notion of pastiche as imitation of style, and shows how stylistic affinity to the originals produces complex effects in the imitations. The article identifies two main strands in the pastiches: one that aims to correct the mistakes and fill in the gaps in the original stories, and one that supplements the canon with stories Watson left untold. Balancing among homage, criticism, and usurpation, the pastiches comment on the original story world and its cultural context, and engage in fictions of authorship to account for the apparent inauthenticity of the retellings.