Before Fanfiction - by Alexandra Edwards (Paperback)

About the Book

"Fan studies has a literary history problem. From the discipline's seminal works of the early 1990s to its recent, media-attention-garnering popular scholarship, fan studies has repeated one creation myth time and again. "Fandom," this myth tells us, might have gained popularity in the 1960s as female audiences mimeographed and mailed each other Star Trek fanzines, but it owes its creation to the male-dominated world of the 1930s science fiction pulps. But this history neglects the full picture of U.S. fan cultures in the early twentieth century, and it erases the many women writers and readers who transformed American culture by their participation in early forms of fandom. Before Fanfiction serves as an intervention. It examines the work of popular women writers working in "middlebrow," modernist, and regional forms, and the fan responses to such work, in order to present a counter-history of fan cultures - one that returns women to center stage, while arguing for a more complex, less hierarchical understanding of authorship, genre, and the American literary marketplace in early twentieth century. This book is the first to approach early twentieth-century fan culture from a literary-historical perspective. It will appeal to both literature and fan studies scholars, who will find in it not only research and analysis but also a model for future work examining the many connections between literature and fan culture"--

Book Synopsis

Before Fanfiction investigates the overlapping cultures of fandom and American literature from the late 1800s to the mid-1940s, exploding the oft-repeated myth that fandom has its origins in the male-dominated letter columns of science fiction pulp magazines in the 1930s. By reexamining the work of popular American women writers and their fans, Alexandra Edwards recovers the literary history of American media fandom, drawing previously ignored fangirls into the spotlight.

Review Quotes

"Before Fanfiction reenergizes fan studies in exciting new directions that promise to revolutionize the field. Revising the 'fandom creation myth, ' Edwards establishes a lineage of fan audiences through varied genealogies, including early literary fan communities, letter columns in literary magazines, and fan mail. Exploring an intersectional history of fan culture, Edwards changes our understanding of fandom today and, relevantly, what fandom can be in the future. A must-read for fan scholars and audiences alike."--Paul Booth, professor of media and popular culture at DePaul University and author of Playing Fans: Negotiating Fandom and Media in the Digital Age

"Before Fanfiction significantly expands, extends, revises, and reanimates our understanding of the multiple histories of fandom and, in particular, fan writing, through a consideration of other transformative literary practices. Edwards's boldly revisionist approach makes this book essential reading, decentering the white male science fiction fan conventions from fandom's origin stories, in favor of women's clubs, circles, and magazines of the early twentieth century."--Henry Jenkins, author of Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture

"A vivid investigation of the historical bonds that link fandom, criticism, and creative practice. Edwards shows how the fan cultures of today are rooted in a matriarchal and thoroughly literary lineage that extends well beyond our contemporary mediaverse."--Sheila Liming, author of What a Library Means to a Woman: Edith Wharton and the Will to Collect Books

About the Author

Alexandra Edwards teaches writing at Texas Christian University. She has won two Primetime Emmy Awards for her work producing interactive storytelling experiences for the popular web series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Emma Approved.