Abstract
Real person fiction is a type of fanfiction utilizing real (living) people as characters. It tends to flourish within subcultural fan communities, and has been little studied by academics. Almost all fanfic is now produced for and on digital platforms, I argue that in order to understand it, we need to incorprorate some established tools from the study of digital narratives. Metalepsis, or the self-conscious movement between ‘levels’ of reality and fiction, is a particularly important tool here. Further, building on Paul Booth's concept of the 'interreal', I argue that we understand appeals to the putative subject of RPF as directed to a ‘fictionalized addressee’, that is, to an addressee who is neither purely fictional nor purely nonfictional, but a construct of mediated activity that demonstrates the communal construction of the subcultural celebrity. Further findings from this project are forthcoming in the journal. Convergence
Author Information
Judith Fathallah, Bangor University, United Kingdom
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