Abstract MERRILL, ASHLEY CHRISTINE. the Evolution Of
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Abstract MERRILL, ASHLEY CHRISTINE. The Evolution of Nancy Drew, Cultural Icon: Readers, Writers, and Fanfiction Authors. (Under the direction of Mary Helen Thuente.) Nancy Drew is widely recognized as an influential American cultural icon. In this paper I make a detailed examination of Nancy's initial characterization as girl sleuth in the first ten books of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, published in the 1930s. I spend another chapter examining the initial volumes of later Nancy Drew series books, specifically the 1960s rewritten texts, the 1980s-90s Nancy Drew Files series, and the contemporary Girl Detective series. My penultimate chapter discusses Nancy Drew as realized in fanfiction, or stories written by readers and fans. My emphasis is on explaining Nancy's appeal as a cultural icon and the ways fanfiction authors reinvent and appropriate that icon for their own purposes in stories. To this end I cite fanfic writers and readers' response to why they read and write Nancy Drew fanfiction, and I analyze the content and function of a sample of stories written by Nancy Drew fans. I conclude that Nancy's appeal and the basis of her status as cultural icon is due to her unique nature as a figure frozen in transition between adolescence and adulthood, along with her more conventionally admirable traits. Her Everygirl appearance when removed from that unique matrix makes her extremely adaptable to readers for their own purposes, both within the context of fanfiction and without. THE EVOLUTION OF NANCY DREW, CULTURAL ICON: READERS, WRITERS, AND FANFICTION AUTHORS by ASHLEY CHRISTINE MERRILL A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts ENGLISH Raleigh, North Carolina 2007 Approved by: ________________________________ ________________________________ John J. Kessel David M. Rieder _______________________________ Mary Helen Thuente Chair of Advisory Committee Biography Ashley Merrill is a longtime Nancy Drew fan, who hopes to be a Carolyn Keene one day. ii Table of Contents Page List of Abbreviations.............................................................................................................iv Introduction......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter I: The Original Nancy Drew........................................................................................4 Chapter II: Second-Generation Nancy Drew............................................................................41 Chapter III: Nancy Drew Fanfiction..........................................................................................55 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................... 74 Bibliography.........................................................................................................................78 Appendices.........................................................................................................................82 Appendix A. Fanfiction.net survey responses......................................................83 Appendix B. Livejournal.com survey responses...................................................86 iii List of Abbreviations (in order of their appearance) fanfiction (also abbreviated "fic") - At its simplest level, fictional stories written by fans. fandom - A contraction of "fan" and "kingdom" which generally refers to the group of people who are more than casually interested in a given television show, book, or movie. For ease of understanding, I'll use a Hamlet metaphor: if I wrote fanfiction based on Hamlet, I would consider myself a part of the Hamlet fandom. If I wrote Hamlet fanfiction which dealt solely with the Kenneth Branagh movie version, I would still be a member of the Hamlet fandom, but only in the subgroup of Branagh-movie fans. BNF - Big Name Fan. A fan who has gained some measure of status in his or her fandom. Fanfiction.net (or FFN) - http://www.fanfiction.net; also referred to as the "Pit of Voles" or simply "Pit." badfic - Bad fanfic. WIP - "Work in Progress;" unfinished story. ship - Contraction for "support a relationship between." The slash between the two names indicates the pairing (but this is not to be confused with the term "slash"). In Hamlet terms, the notation "Hamlet/Ophelia" would refer to a story including a romantic relationship between those two characters. slash - Homosexual pairing. "Hamlet/Laertes" would be a "slash" (homosexual) relationship. OTP - An "OTP," or "one true pairing," is a fan's favorite pairing, and is limited to one (overall or per fandom). However, many writers and readers support multiple pairings in a given fandom, and may even read and write stories endorsing different pairings for the same character (Hamlet/Ophelia and Hamlet/Laertes). canon - Legitimate information in a fandom. The Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, Nancy Drew Files, Nancy Drew On Campus books, and Nancy Drew: Girl Detective stories are all "canon," but a fanfic author can choose which series to include or ignore as background for her story. Nancy/Frank is "canon" only in that Nancy and Frank admit a mutual attraction for each other in the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys SuperMysteries. A Hamlet canon pairing would be Hamlet/Ophelia; a non-canon pairing iv would be Ophelia/Rosencrantz. AU - Alternate Universe. This label applies to stories which do not fit into the canon as written. AU stories can split off from a point within or after canon (for instance, if a story presented Nancy as having joined the American forces going to World War II after Quest of the Missing Map, that story would have "gone AU after" that book). An AU Hamlet fanfic could find Hamlet committing suicide in the third act, marrying Ophelia and running away to another country, or being revived after his death scene at the conclusion of the play. crossover - Crossovers are stories where characters or settings from other series overlap. If Hamlet found himself in Verona with Romeo and Juliet, or if Miranda walked into Hamlet's castle, such a story would be considered crossover because it combines elements from separate series. This term isn't limited to connected series; Hamlet could also walk onto the bridge of the starship Enterprise in a crossover fic. universe - The name for a particular series of fanfiction stories. An AU Hamlet "universe" (series) could start with a story where Horatio defends the castle against siege forces, followed by a story where Horatio takes over the kingdom and sets about finding himself a consort. A given story may be AU (non-canonical); a series, is not necessarily non-canonical (AU). The "universe"/series could also deal with exploring each character's psychological state within canon: Ophelia's thoughts just before drowning herself, Gertrude's thoughts when she realizes Claudius's complicity. reviews - Feedback on a story. Positive reviews usually include some emotional response ("I really loved that scene where Hamlet punched out Laertes") and can also include constructive criticism ("...but you also ended a lot of your sentences with prepositions"). Most constructive criticism is accompanied by praise for a particular aspect of the story. "Flames," or negative feedback, can be nonconstructive criticism ("this story sucks") or an attack on the author ("you suck as a writer"). In an attempt to reduce flaming (the act of being "flamed" or attacked), some authors choose to only receive "signed," or non-anonymous, reviews. Flames in the Nancy Drew fic community, in general, seem to be attacks on perceived deficiencies in writing style, or on the endorsement of a pairing which the "flamer" does not support. OOC - "Out of character," a subjective term indicating character behavior which is not endorsed by or reflected in the original work. A story which included Carson physically abusing Nancy v would be considered OOC, unless justified by the piece (and even then, some readers would still reject it). Hamlet deciding to become Claudius's adoring stepson/nephew would probably be considered OOC. in-jokes - A joke which is understood only by a subset of all potential readers. A character could make a throwaway (unimportant to the plot) reference to "that time we met Dracula," which would confuse some readers but be recognized by those familiar with the 1970s television series or the novelization The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Meet Dracula. character death - A warning given for a story which includes the death of a major series character. retcon - "Retroactive continuity," the act of reconciling contradictory information presented within a single canon and eliminating all evidence that such a paradox ever existed. Mary Sue - A specific type of original female character in a fanfiction. "Mary Sues" tend to upstage the traditional heroes of a story or become romantically involved with them, and are sometimes wish-fulfillment characters, representing the desires of the author. The term "Mary Sue" is perjorative, and most readers do not appreciate "Mary Sue" stories. The original male character counterpart is called some variation of "Mary Sue;" for example, "Gary Stu." fanon - Fan-determined canon, which is not endorsed by the original text. "Elizabeth" is widely accepted in Nancy Drew fanfic as the name of Nancy's mother, and is therefore called fanon. A less widely accepted piece of "fanon," especially among