Fanfiction Archive Timeline
The Fanfiction Archive Timeline is a visual record of archive activity, closures, and preservation for the Tolkien and Harry Potter fandoms. It is updated annually.
Featured Works
Newest Works
A Fanworks Ecumenopolis: Tolkien Fanfiction Archives and the Implications of Consolidation
Published on 14 October 2022 | Conference Paper
Presented at the Fan Studies Network North America conference in 2022, this presentation uses the concept of the "world city" or ecumenopolis as a metaphor for the infrastructure for archiving fanworks in the early 2020s, taking Tolkien fanfiction as a case study. As the extreme archival fragmentation of the Tolkien fandom gave way to growing consolidation onto the Archive of Our Own, questions arise concerning the future of fandom archiving and whether this consolidation poses risks of not just data loss but cultural loss as well.
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Topic: Fandom Culture, Fandom History
Characters: No characters listed.
The Pillar and the Vastness: A Longitudinal View of the Tolkien Fanfiction Fandom
Published on 3 June 2021 | Conference Paper
Using the 2015 and 2020 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data, this presentation reviews fandom demographics, use of sources, influence of the films, and use of sites and archives to post fanfiction, reviewing changes across the two data sets.
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Topic: Fandom Culture, Fandom History
Characters: No characters listed.
As I Say and As I Do: Negotiating Transformational Impulses in Tolkien-Based Fanfiction
Published on 2 June 2021 | Conference Paper
This paper challenges the idea that Tolkien fanfiction is primarily transformational, using data from the 2015 and 2020 Tolkien Fanfiction Surveys to argue that fanwriters instead engage in a much more complex negotiation between the urges to expand (and challenge) the canon and to cede to Tolkien's authority over the world he created.
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Topic: Fandom Culture, Fandom History
Characters: No characters listed.
Affirmational and Transformational Values and Practices in the Tolkien Fanfiction Community
Published on 19 January 2020 | Article
Using survey data, primary historical sources, and existing scholarship, this article makes the case that writers of Tolkien-based fanfiction value elements of both affirmational and transformational fandom. The navigation of canon, authority, criticism, and reparation is complex and shapes not only the stories authors tell but the communities they build. Published in the Journal of Tolkien Research.
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Topic: Fandom Culture, Fandom History
Characters: No characters listed.
Yule Lights
Published on 30 December 2019 | Short Story | Gift Story
As the new lord of Ost-in-Edhil, Celebrimbor must preside over a Yule festivity lacking what he loved of the celebration when he was younger, elements that have become fraught by association with Fëanor, but Annatar has a surprise for him.
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Topic:
Characters: Celebrimbor, Curufin, Sauron