Umeå University's logo

Through close readings of a selection of The Vampire Diaries fan fictions, this chapter examines the treatment of issues related to ethics, as depicted in human/vampire relationships. The salient themes and topics: agency, intimacy, and consent are discussed in relation to The Vampire Diaries canon, vampire lore, literary tropes and techniques, and philosophy with a focus on what is altered and what is re-used. Fanfics depicting new pairings can shift the relationship patterns and ethics through even rather small changes. Conversely, fanfic stories that take a rather big step away from canon representations of romance and sexuality can still use long-lived tropes of romantic fiction which readers of today may find ethically problematic. Since human/vampire relationships are the main interest in this chapter, the selected fanfics build on events and characters from the first two seasons of The Vampire Diaries, the CW show. From the third season onwards, an increasing number of The Vampire Diaries characters turn out to be superhuman in some way.

From a contextualization of fanfiction as a text form and the choice of fanfics to analyse, this chapter moves on to discuss relationships and ethics in The Vampire Diaries, before addressing a selection of fan fictions in which human-vampires relationships bring to the fore questions of agency, intimacy, consent, and free will, issues which all have bearing on the world outside of vampire romance and fan fiction. 

L’auteur suédois Stefan Spjut emprunte des figures des légendes sames et des mythes nordiques pour créer des êtres surnaturels dans ses romans Stallo et Stalpi. Les titres de romans, en langue same, indiquent leur nature car stalpi signifie « loup » et « stallo » est le nom d’un géant malveillant des légendes sames. Dans le monde des romans, situé dans le pays des Sames, les géants (ou trolls) et les loups sont des créatures surnaturelles, des métamorphes alternant entre une forme animale, ours et loup, et une forme anthropomorphe, troll ou créature lycanthrope respectivement. À côté de ces êtres puissants se trouvent des petits métamorphes à l’allure des animaux de la forêt, dotés de pouvoirs télépathiques qui leur permettent de contrôler les esprits des humains. Considérées à la lumière des mythes et légendes sames et nordiques, et à l’aide de la dark ecology, ces créatures permettent d’entrevoir un message écocritique inquiétant.

The Swedish author Stefan Spjut draws upon figures from Sami legends and myths to create supernatural beings in his novels Stallo and Stalpi. The titles of the novels, in the Sami language, indicate their nature, as « stalpi » means « wolf », and « stallo » is the name of a malevolent giant from Sami legends. Within the world of the novels, set in Sápmi the land of the Sami people, the giants (or trolls) and wolves in question are supernatural creatures, shapeshifters alternating between an animal form, bear or wolf, and an anthropomorphic form, troll or lycanthropic creature, respectively. Alongside these powerful beings are small metamorphs resembling forest animals, endowed with telepathic powers that allow them to control the minds of humans. Considered in the light of Sami and Nordic myths and legends, combined with insights from ‘dark ecology’, these creatures offer glimpses of a disquieting ecocritical message.

Les mythes nordiques se trouvent au centre de PAX (2014-18), une série romanesque suédoise créée par Åsa Larsson, Ingela Korseli et Henrik Jonsson. Les protagonistes de cet urban fantasy sont définis en lien avec les héros de la mythologie nordique et les créatures surnaturelles à combattre se distinguent de celles de la littérature et de la culture populaire actuelles, car issues des anciennes légendes populaires suédoises. Cet article, à cheval entre la littérature et la folkloristique, analyse les liens intertextuels mythiques et la réinterprétation des figures folkloriques. Dans une optique de narratologie cognitive sont étudiés les éléments du récit formant les blocs de construction du monde narratif de FAX que le lecteur doit créer mentalement. Ainsi se construit le monde mythique FAX, entre légendes anciennes et nouvelles, apportant aux jeunes lecteurs des valeurs constructives.

The Swedish urban fantasy book series PAX (2014-18), by Larsson, Korseli and Jonsson, revolves around Nordic mythology and folk legends. The protagonists are defined by heroes from Nordic mythology and the supernatural creatures they fight are far from the ones often seen in literature and in current popular culture as they are modelled on rather unknown folklore figures. Combining literary and folklore studies, this article analyses the mythological strands in PAX via examples of revived folklore creatures and intertextual links to Nordic myths. Using a cognitive literary approach, the study further discusses the building blocks that form the blueprint of the PAX story world which the readers must mentally construct. The mythical story world of PAX, built on old and new legends, provides constructive values and empowering stories for young readers.

Teaching French as a foreign language usually implies teaching French literature, especially in higher education. Training university students in literary reading in a foreign language requires addressing several aspects at the same time: the (foreign) language, the poetic language, the aesthetic aspects of the studied works, and various interpretations of them. A pilot study sought to test a teaching model that would support students in learning to perform competent readings and short analyses of French literary works, in a rather independent manner. This shared practice paper describes the use of a flipped classroom method in two French literature courses, a campus course and an online course, and suggests that the teaching model may provide efficient tools for teaching literary reading and analysis in a foreign language. The teaching model builds on a high level of student activity and focuses on attentive reading, meta-perspectives such as theoretical concepts, individual analyses by students where said concepts are applied, and group discussions of the studied texts and of possible interpretations.

Produser interaction through fan fictions (fanfics) results in expansions of the narrow range of stories provided by the increasingly consolidated production companies, and is therefore an important contribution to meaning-making discussions about love, gender and sexualities. Fanfic authors rework the romance of Twilight in ways that question its unequal gender power relations, the abstinence and hetero-norms, and the romantic staple of one true love. Given their potential influence on commercial producers, fanfics are more than mere ‘interaction’ yet are not full ‘participation’ according to Carpentier’s AIP model.