Emily and Anne Brontë as Fanfiction Writers: The Gondal Saga

This chapter analyses Emily Brontë’s Gondal juvenilia as an early example of a fanfiction universe. In contrast to reconstructions of Gondal as an epic saga (cf. Ratchford’s Gondal’s Queen), more recent studies describe the juvenilia as productive of alternative universes (Gezari), ‘role-playing games’ (Ashley) or fandoms (Stasi). This case study explores online fanfiction as a descendant of archontic literature, which consisted of continuations or revisions of a pre-existing text, many written by non-professionals. It also links fanfictions to the oral storytelling tradition, in which topics were owned collectively. Throughout history, archontic literature has offered an uncensored, creative space to subordinated groups(e.g. women, ethnic minorities) to express their voices. The chapter suggests that Gondal allowed Emily Brontë to exercise the power denied to her by nineteenth-century patriarchal society.