What do you call it?

[quinara]

There was an interesting post I read on fanlore this morning about how the latest news (that 'fan fiction' has been added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary) from otw_news should affect Fanlore, which while part of the OTW is supposed to be self-reflective of fandom, rather than looking in from elsewhere (so, the question is, is 'fan fiction' actually the standard way people write the term in fandom, or is it interchangeable with 'fanfiction' or is 'fanfiction' actually the norm - note that that's actually a separate issue to 'fanfic').

I don't agree with khellekson that "fan is not a prefix. Turning the two words into one elides the active work of the fan by making the entire word about the artwork"; I think fanfic is practically an entirely different process to 'fiction', with a different start point, goal and end point, so having an entirely different word makes sense. But that's just a difference of opinion - what I found more interesting was the general squee that 'fan fiction' was now in 'the' dictionary. I hadn't realised it wasn't!

But that would possibly be because, for me as someone in the UK, it's been in 'the' dictionary, ie. the OED, for five years. (I know that says draft, but various other places say it was added properly in December 2004; please correct me if you think I'm in error.)

Besides finding it a little peculiar that apparently US English speakers were without any point of legitimate reference at all before the addition of the term to MW, this got me wondering, in relation to Fanlore and fandom in general, what do people in non-English-speaking fandom and indeed people in English-speaking fandom for whom English isn't their first language call (what apparently is properly referred to as) 'fan fiction'. Do you compound or not? Is it always a loan word or do you have your own terms (this probably sounds ridiculously naive, but despite my FF icon I've never really been involved in fanfic/discussion for a non-English fandom)? Is there another convention elsewhere in the world?

And what do people do more generally? I'd love to hear from my flist and any random passers-by.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

i was hoping for at least one response from the, er, asiatic side. or any other culture where the roman letters are not usually used. one can dream :D

[troisroyaumes]

Hah, I can make this response because I've been looking for Korean fanfiction lately! Though the answer is unfortunately kind of disappointing: it's still "fanfic" (or in Korean transliteration, "paen-pik", since there is no "f" sound). Occasionally it's written out as "paen-pik so-seol", which translates to "fanfic novel", particularly in forums where the main focus is on publishing online fiction* of any sort (with fanfiction being a subcategory). The full term "fanfiction" ("paen-pik-syeon") will still turn up hits, but much less.

Slash however is designated in Korean terms: "dong-seong", which translates literally to "same-sex"/"homosexual" and seems inclusive of (AFAICT) femmeslash. Het is "i-seong" or "opposite-sex"/"heterosexual".

* One fun Netspeak term for online fiction is "in-so" which is short for "in-teo-net so-seol" or "Internet novel".

[quinara]

Cool - thanks for popping in! I suppose my not particularly inspired question would be whether 'so-seol' or 'in-so' is used for non-novel fanfics (or in any way that's different to the non-fandom/internet usage of 'so-seol')?

It's very interesting that, if I'm reading you correctly, that Korean fanfic is seen as part of a wider internet-publishing phenomenon. I don't think I've ever come across that sort of feeling before.

[troisroyaumes]

AFAICT, "so-seol" are not always as long as offline novels, but they are almost always serials (at least two parts if not more). There's a short story category as well--"dan-pyeon"--for oneshots but not all sites seem to be making the distinction, so it's hard to tell.

Korean fanfic is seen as part of a wider internet-publishing phenomenon.

I think so. Fanfiction is either archived on fan cafes that are devoted to one specific fandom or they are on large online fiction collectives. Online fiction is pretty big in Korea; many K-dramas and published novels started off online.

[quinara]

Online fiction is pretty big in Korea; many K-dramas and published novels started off online.

That's really interesting! As is the possibility of the serial/short sense-blur.

bigbigtruck@LJ, here via metafandom

[(Anonymous)]

On Japanese fan-sites (at least, ones I visited between 2001 and 2007), the most common designator for fanfic was 'shousetsu' (小説). I occasionally saw it written out in kana as ファンフィック (as an English loanword).

Similarly, the designation for "fanart" or "fanart gallery" was more often simply "e" (絵)　(pictures) than say, ファンアート etc.

Re: bigbigtruck@LJ, here via metafandom

[(Anonymous)]

Erm, 'shousetsu' being similarly generic ("stories") as 'e' ("pictures"). I don't know if there are words to indicate material specifically of a fannish nature, or if the artists/writers were intentionally using common, general terms.

Re: bigbigtruck@LJ, here via metafandom

[quinara]

So a bit like 'fic' and 'vids' or something (though presumably not a shortened form)? That's cool!

Re: bigbigtruck@LJ, here via metafandom

[solitudinous]

Ah! That would explain why I've seen "SS" used (as the short form of shousetsu, presumably) to designate fanfics in Japanese archives. Interesting.

For fanart, I've most usually seen "irasuto" (I'd use the kana, but new computer doesn't have Japanese IME, mutter grr) used as the short form of "illustrations" ("i-ra-su-to-re-i-shon"). "Illust" I've seen used, too. Or sometimes just "CG".

Re: bigbigtruck@LJ, here via metafandom

[troisroyaumes]

小説 is the hanja for so-seol for what it's worth.
Is it specific to fanfiction in Japanese or does it also translate to "novel"/"long work of fiction"? Oops, saw your follow-up comment.

Re: bigbigtruck@LJ, here via metafandom

[(Anonymous)]

In Chinese, I've seen also seen it as 同人, possibly borrowed from the Japanese 'doujin'.

[quinara]

Well, the night/day is young! I'd love to hear more too.