Ms. Dawn Edwards

Independent Scholar

Akron, OH 44320

USA

hecate1571@yahoo.com

 

Will the Real Buffy Summers Please Stand Up: Fan Reinvention of Buffy Summers Through Fanfiction?

[Click on the link above to see this paper's placement in the SCBtVS Program.]

 

The fan culture in Buffy The Vampire Slayer has been strong in how it interprets or reinterprets the canon of BTVS. The most predominant way for fans to reinterpret events is to write fanfiction. Authors Kristina Busse in "Crossing the Final Taboo: Family, Sexuality, and Incest in Buffyverse Fan Fiction" in Fighting the Forces and Esther Saxey in "Staking a Claim: The Series and its Slash Fanfiction" in Reading The Vampire Slayer have explored the fans use of fanfiction to reinvent the series or explore subjects the shows creators avoid. In the case of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer fans not only rewrite the television shows but often rewrite characters and canonical events to make their own universe as is suggested by Henry Jenkins in his book Textual Poachers. In my study I will be using the Narrative Paradigm applied to fanfiction that features the character of Buffy Summers in a romantic relationship. I will look at both her conventional relationships with characters such as Spike, Angel and Riley Finn, as well as the fan created relationships with Rupert Giles and Xander Harris. Often Buffy Summers, when involved in a romantic pairing, tends to change personality depending on the partner. I will analyze the fanfiction narrative based on how well it maintains fidelity, material coherence, character coherence, and structural coherence between itself and the canon of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer.