Structural characteristics of English fanfiction

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the internal organization of English fanfiction as a kind of secondary literary communication formed in the digital environment and characterized by genre diversity, dynamism and openness to creative transformations. Fanfiction is considered as a textual, discursive and platform phenomenon, within which artistic creativity is combined with the mechanics of social interaction and cultural self-representation. Based on a corpus of 500 texts with a total volume of about 200,000 words, selected from the fan platforms FanFiction.net and Archive of Our Own, a comprehensive study of the three levels of the structural organization of fanfiction is carried out. In the textual plane, genre models are distinguished (continuation of the canon, omitted scenes, fix-it fiction, alternative universes), characteristic plot architectonics and intertextual mechanisms that ensure the formation of a "fanon" as a collectively agreed interpretation of canonical material. The discursive level demonstrates interactivity, the presence of metacommunication, polycode and hybridity of style, combining features of traditional literary writing with elements of digital communication (jargon, emojis, comments, appeals to readers). The platform level is manifested through systems of tags, ratings and tropes, which play the role of navigational and meaning-making tools that not only organize texts, but also form the horizons of audience expectations and define the framework of interpretation. As a result, it is proven that English fan fiction functions not as a marginal product of mass culture, but as a multidimensional discursive phenomenon and communicative ecosystem, where the canon serves as a starting point for collective creativity and the development of new meanings.