Quarantine Fic
| Trope · Genre | |
|---|---|
| Synonyms: | |
| Related: | Sharing a Bed, Roommates AU |
| See Also: | |
| Tropes · Slash Tropes · Tropes by Fandom | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Quarantine fics often focus on characters quarantined together as a result of exposure to a dangerous substance or due to a health emergency. This trope had appeared before 2020, but in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, quarantine fics saw a massive rise in popularity.
It is often a trope used to bring together two characters who are not in a relationship or living together, but end up cohabiting due to quarantine measures. These works are often an amalgamation of, or contain elements of classic fic tropes; such as, Trapped Together, Roommates AU and Sharing a Bed.
This trope can often be found in Science Fiction fandoms for example Star Trek:TOS or The X-Files, since the characters often deal with alien lifeforms and/or the risk of being exposed to infectious spores or plagues.
Fanfic as a Coping Mechanism
Quarantine Fics had never been considered controversial because very few of them related to real life quarantines. In March 2020, there was much discussion about whether or not it was appropriate to write such fics and why some people chose to write/read them in the midst of a pandemic.
Actually, quarantine fics in a sense go all the way back to Boccaccio’s “Decameron,” which concerns a group of people hidden away in a villa from the ravages of the Black Death in the 14th century and telling stories to pass the time.[1]
Criticism
Example Fanworks
- Antidote, a fandom classic X-Files story by Karen Rasch and Rachel Howard
- Lovely – A Little Problem, a gen Star Trek: TOS novel by Brenda Kelsey
Events
- Lock Down Fest, a mini fest on Tumblr, Mar 2020.
Archives & Fannish Links
- Fics in the Time of Coronavirus, a collection on Ao3, active since March 2020.
- Special Episode 15: Tropefest: Trapped Together a Fansplaining episode, March 2020.
- Contagion Page on the Mulder's Creek Fan Fiction Archive, featuring X-Files fanworks dealing with illnesses as well as threat of Epidemics & Pandemics
References
- ^ Comment on Reddit thread Quarantine fics are now a genre, and I can't stop laughing in /r/fanfiction by Bolt_DMC, March 16 2020.
