Authorial Intent - Fanlore

Authorial intentionality is a concept in literary theory and criticism referring to an author's intent as it is encoded in his or her work. Not all fans assign the same importance to authorial intent, and some consider their own reader response to be the thing that determines meaning in a work.

Authorial Intent in Source Texts

Fans may discuss authorial intent and it's importance when discussing source texts for their fandoms. In many episode reviews, fans will try to divine the intent of the creators or TPTB in the meaning of the latest plot twist or character revelation. The idea of fanservice relies on interpreting specific motivations of the authors of a source in relationship to the fan's expected reaction to it.

When authors or creators discuss their work in public, they often make statements about their own authorial intent. Many fans regard arguments such as "Author X has stated that character Y is heterosexual" to be immaterial; what counts to these fans is the work as it stands on its own. Not all fans or fandoms follow the same rules on determining what is or is not canon, and reactions to authorial statements of intent will vary.

• J.K. Rowling revealed in a question period after a book-reading that her character Dumbledore was conceived of by her as gay^[1]. Some fans took this as justification of their queer reading of Dumbledore, while others regard Rowling's opinion on the matter as mere interesting trivia.

• Joe Mallozzi wrote in his blog that the character of Captain Alicia Vega in the Stargate Atlantis episode Search and Rescue asked out Jennifer Keller in a scene that was cut and never aired.^[2] The character was later killed off in the episode Whispers, leaving fans the option of accepting the blog entry as canon and retroactively creating another Dead Lesbian, or ignoring the information.

The issue of an author's control of their work and how it is perceived is sometimes at the heart of creator's objections to the existence of fanworks. Many author's who express extreme displeasure at the existence of fanfic for their works are upset by their characters being used in ways that they disapprove of, often citing sexually explicit or slash works as examples of the very worst of fanfic's transgressions against them. (See The Fan Fiction Rant, Diana Gabaldon, Professional Author Fanfic Policies for more details.)

Authorial Intent in Fanworks

The question of authorial intent also arises when fans discuss each other's works. In discussions about fanworks that may reinforce the misogyny or racism in a source text, fans may question the relevance of the author's intent in creating the work vs. the importance of individual fan's responses to it.

In the discussions surrounding Take Clothes Off As Directed and Coming Home, some fans asserted that Helen was intending to have her story viewed as a feminist critique of the original story. Other fans viewed the author's intent with what was labeled "an unauthorized homage" irrelevant, and individual interpretations of the story as a critique or as a more friendly-seeming remix were all valid. See links at Fandom Reactions.

The very practice of labeling fanworks with headers that include genres such as gen, het, slash or pre-slash, or labels such as non-con or dub-con, is an exercise in the author expressing their intent with the work.

In cases where the label is debatable (see Genre Boundaries) readers may resent having their reading of the work dictated by the header. There is also a perception among some fans that writers who don't want their friendship fic seen as slash are sometimes antagonistic to slash fans in their labeling.^[3]

References

1. ↑ "Rowling Says Dumbledore is Gay", Newsweek, 6 October, 2007, accessed 19 October, 2008
2. ↑ Gateworld, Mallozzi: Captain Vega was gay, accessed April 25, 2010
3. ↑ suaine: I was going to post about some sexist crap, but I found this instead, accessed April 29, 2010