Reading RPF as digital fiction: An argument for new perspectives

Fathallah, Judith. (2018). Reading RPF as digital fiction: An argument for new perspectives. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 2018, 24 (6), pp. 568-586

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Abstract

RPF, or ‘real person fiction’, is a subset of fanfiction that has gone largely unnoticed by academics. A handful of articles have argued for the justification of stories about real (living) people as a legitimate and morally sound art form, but only a very few studies have begun to consider RPF as a genre with its own aesthetics and conventions. This article argues that, to understand fannish RPF, we need to incorporate tools developed by scholars of digital fiction. Almost all fanfic is now produced for and on digital platforms, and moreover, the natural fit between RPF specifically and the study of metalepsis, or self-conscious movement between ‘levels’ of reality and fiction, makes this tool and others imported from the study of digital fiction an illuminating set of lenses through which to read it.

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