Canon Fanfiction: Reading, Writing, and Teaching with Adaptations of Premodern and Early Modern Literature

For most of Western history, literary value came from retelling and reworking the literature of the past. This reinvention of source material is not unlike the process of writing fanfiction, a genre that has exploded in popularity among young adults in the internet age. It also bears a resemblance the work of literary scholars, who seek to respond, sometimes radically, to the difficult or problematic elements in texts they study. In a climate of increasing indifference toward literature and scholarship, creative writing provides novelists and students alike a powerful way to engage with literature of the past and confront the ethical issues 21st-century readers encounter in it. This book offers a study of novelizations based on Classical, medieval, and Renaissance literature and suggests ways in which such “literary fanfiction” can be harnessed in the classroom. By responding in kind to literature—as writers—students can continue to value literature of the past and revitalize its study for the future.