Fanfiction as Queer Healing: Femslash Authorship and the Swan Queen Ship Dr Alice M. Chapman-Kelly (Fellow-in-Residence, Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, University of Oxford, UK) 9781350350861

Exploring the phenomenon of Femslash fanfiction (fan narratives that bring together heterosexual female characters from mainstream media and fiction), this book analyses fan-authored works as forms of literature worthy of studying at length. It examines the anti-racist, feminist, sapphic fan works produced in response to white supremacist, heteronormative, queerbaiting mainstream fantasy and argues that they represent a significant site of queer healing for marginalised audience members. Focusing on the 'Swan Queen' fandom, where fans pair the 'white trash' heroine, Emma Swan and the villainous Latina Evil Queen (Regina Mills) from ABC's hit show Once Upon a Time, Alice Kelly redresses the widespread academic neglect of queer female fandoms and responds to urgent calls to diversify fan and fantasy scholarship. With reference to complex theoretical subjects such as ethnography, sociology, psychology and decolonial, queer, film and media studies, the book also delves into the alternative timescales on which queer female and genderqueer fan authorship runs; offers intriguing insights into fanfiction narrative structures; and tackles the issues of broader fandom representation and contextualization. Making the case that fan texts deserve attention in the academy, Kelly shows how some of the most prolific fan works have the ability to enact colour reparation and a reclamation of memory, fantasy, romance, maternity, childhood, parenting and magic. These fictions serve fan communities as a whole through intersectional challenges to the power dynamics of the source text and within the fandom itself and, as the book demonstrates, offer attendant validation to fantasy fans who have been repeatedly told that the genre is not for them.

The first book-length exploration of femflash fanfiction and its implications for wider fan communities, this text presents new theories of queer, fan, and fantasy time based on fan-authored works inspired by characters from ABC's Once Upon a Time.

About the Author
Alice Kelly is Fellow-in-Residence at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, UK. As the Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh, UK, Alice published widely on queer female fandoms and published her first book Decolonising the Conrad Canon in 2022.


Book Information
ISBN 9781350350861
Author Dr Alice M. Chapman-Kelly
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Series Perspectives on Fantasy