Fandom

Historically and culturally, it is possible to analytically distinguish between literary fandoms that sprang up around novels and their characters in the pre-20th century, Sherlock Holmes and Sherlockian/Holmesian Societies, for example, and media fandoms that later emerged in relation to television series of the 1960s, such as Star Trek. To view imaginary worlds as entities created officially or canonically by media producers before then being "consumed" by fans and fan communities thus misses the extent to which fans can be viewed as co-creators of these worlds over time. Viewing fanworks as transformative has also focused much scholarly attention on the sexual politics of fannish and canonical productions: fandom has shaped more inclusive visions of imaginary worlds through "slash fiction" in comparison to the heteronormative canons of media franchises. Natalia Samutina has explored the significance of crossover fanfic in a Russian context, arguing that such fan activity "undermines the traditional preconceptions of how imaginary worlds can be built, inhabited and developed".