Historical AU
| Trope · Genre | |
|---|---|
| Synonyms: | |
| Related: | Historical Fanworks, Historical RPF, Alternate Universe, Barbarians, Modern AU |
| See Also: | Steampunk, Noir Detective AU, Regency AU, Slave AU, Western AU, Victorian AU |
| Tropes · Slash Tropes · Tropes by Fandom | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
An historical AU is a fanwork that moves characters into a different historical period from their canon setting. Typically this involves taking "contemporary" characters (from the late 20th Century or 21st Century) and putting them in an earlier historical period (such as the 19th Century or before). It can also refer to setting characters from a historical fandom such as Jane Austen in a different period, such as the First World War.
The AU may be a completely original setting for the characters or it may be more of a fusion where a canon setting from another fandom is used for the chosen characters. A story might be about Sherlock and Watson as two knights in a fantasy medieval world or they might be in the recognizable canon setting of a show that is set in a different time in history.
"Hystericals" -- The Professionals Fandom
In The Professionals fandom, historical AU fanfics are especially, but not limited to those by Meg Lewtan, referred to as "hystericals."
Popular Historical AU Settings
Popular settings for historical AUs include
- Pirates
- America's Old West
- Britain's Regency or Victorian periods
- Ancient Rome
- a vague facsimile of medieval England such as Robin Hood
- Vikings, more for the raping and pillaging aspect than for historical accuracy
- the 1920s
- World War II
Examples of Fanworks
Fanfiction
- The Annals by nightdog_barks, an epic House, M.D. gen fic, that places House as a Roman army doctor, and Wilson his captured slave who becomes his friend.[1]
- a rare Starsky and Hutch historical AU places them in Ancient Rome in the zine Stans Missus
- How Soft the Scarf, How Deep the Water is a Sentinel example. The publisher's blurb: "In this exciting historical romance, in a setting much like Tudor England, aspiring actor Blair Sands and dashing merchant Jem Ellison have a chance meeting, which leads to their being caught up in a web of intrigue and murder."
- The Pirate's Prisoner and its sequel The Price of a Pardon are gen SGA stories by Eildon Rhymer that take place in 1721. While the first is a Pirate AU, the plot of the sequel centers around a political conspiracy that fits the real political situation at that time.
- Renaissance is a popular Blake's 7 zine by Diane Holland. Editor Judith Proctor recommends it: "Renaissance places [Vila] as Vito Ricotti, a youn[g] shep[h]erd boy with a gift for sketching, who becomes apprenticed to Cervello D'Avonci (a blend of Avon and Leonard da Vinci). Blake is incarnated as the patriot Machiavelli and the stage is set for a replaying of the eternal story between the three of them."[2] (1999)
- Miles Scortillusque by Sineala is a 56,000 word The Professionals Bodie/Doyle slave hookerfic AU set in Pompeii in 74 AD.
- The Les Mis Across History Les Miserables historical AU fest, produced significant numbers of works found on tumblr, and to a lesser extent on AO3
- Really Stretching UNIT Dating is a collection of Doctor Who stories in which the Third Doctor's adventures with UNIT take place in different historical periods: the 1790s, the 1920s, the 2020s and ancient Greece.
- Stardust by Ulrike & Cindy C. An example of a historical AU from a historical source; resets the Regency novel Persuasion in Germany after WW2
Fanart
- Russo-Japanese war AU by riceball-in-a-fruit-basket - Yuri on Ice
Zines
- Epoch, a zine for The Old Guard, flips the Historical AU concept because of the characters' long immortal lives, and features "Historical Canon-Compliant" stories set in any eras other than the ones that canon stories exist for (ie, no Crusades, no Ancient Steppe, and no Napoleonic France). The zine was organized by Ashley Guillory.
Historical Accuracy
Many historical AUs make no effort towards actual historical accuracy, but rather reflect the pop culture versions of the period the same way canon sources do. Historical settings are popular in romance novels and films, and those same sorts of unreal past worlds are often used in fanworks. Some fans refer to this as costume porn, where the point is more to dress your favorite characters up in period costumes than it is to really write about a historical setting.
For some fans - those who are historians, students of history or veterans of fandoms where the source text is concerned with historical realism - the more fantastical histories hold little attraction. They are more interested in the realistic history and placing modern characters into that very different setting to see how it would affect them. However, this kind of realism isn't mutually exclusive with the costume porn thing.
Some of the historical periods that are popular with filmmakers, authors and fan creators bring with them issues of race, cultural appropriation, misogyny, colonialism and imperialism. These issues are sometimes recognized, sometimes ignored and sometimes magnified in fanworks (intentionally or not). The issue of casting white male characters in historical settings or places where they are assuming another race or ethnicity is particularly controversial with fans.{Some cites for the J2 Samurai story might go here}
Slash fans are often fond of setting their modern characters—often men portrayed in the source in stereotypical hyper-masculine ways—in historical periods where physical affection between men was more common or where men dressed in less drab clothing, wore makeup and wigs, etc. Many of these popular settings have a more gender-segregated society as well, which forces the male characters together in close proximity, but also greatly restricts the roles for female characters.
Historical AUs may be made intentionally inaccurate to allow women or non-white characters to do things they may never have been able to do in the real historical period.
Meta
- everysecondtuesday, An Open Letter to Politifandom which discusses Noir 1920s and 30s AUs in Political RPF.
- sheafrotherdon, The Stories We Tell which discusses a Western AU in SGA fandom.
- facetofcathy, Historical AUs and race--my thoughts and questions and no real answers. which is a general discussion using various fic and pro examples of issues around race and class in Historical AUs.
- zvi, You don't have to go looking for this stuff, it just traipses across your reading page, you guys which discusses the pitfalls of placing a multi-ethnic cast in an intentionally inaccurate historical setting in an AIRPS story.
Resources
References
- ^ Nightdog Barks, (2006). The Annals: Part 1. Retrieved 11 December, 2010. Webcite.
- ^ Hermit.org: Recommended Fanzines for Vila (accessed 5 October 2011)
