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that post (about the way ABO universe is constructed by Japanese writers who have nationalised health care VS American writers who… very much don’t) now made me think: how does nationality/culture affects the popular fanfic tropes in a fandom?
Like, if we take for example MCU, what fics AUs are most popular in Japanese fics? In Spanish fics? What charcters interpretations are the most popular, and how are they different from those appearing most in fics written by authors who are native English speakers? And even then, is there a noticeable difference between US, UK, Australian writers and so on?
Did anybody do a study on it and where can I read it?
I suspect there are whole genres of fics a lot of us don’t even know exist, just because their setting and plot is dependednt on cultural context that is not known widely outsite of native writers.
Like, if US popculture wasn’t such a big export, western could be a pretty niche genre. The specific setting is a big part of it.
I don’t actually read a lot of fic in my native language (which is a shame, now I think about it). But back when I did, in the Harry Potter fandom, there were a few fic types that might’ve been specific to Polish writers.
The boarding school style education is not very popular here, for example. Especially for little kids at 11yo. You MIGHT go to student boarding house for your middle school education, if your school is in a big city and you live far away. But for most definitions of “far away” here you’d be able to easily go back to your parents’ on weekends anyway. The works about students’ and teachers’ daily lives in Hogwarts had a slightly different flavour when written in Polish fandom, influenced by the way education system works here.
The Marauders’ Era fics - especially those focusing on the war - also had some of that “Polish guerrilla during WWII occupation” feel to them. There were also future “second war goes badly” fics where HP era characters would be adults, fighting for years already, frequently from abroad, while Voldemort took over UK and had his dystopian goverment going on (Communist era in Central-Eastern Europe anyone?).
Not specific to HP fandom, but the roadtrip fic HAS a very different form/setting! A Soviet Roadtrip is definitely a separate subgenre. The premise is mostly the same, but the Troublesome Roadtrip Through Communist Country HAS to be in an old, communist era car, which is always on the verge on breakdown. The roads are all bad. The characters contemplate their lives, which are hard, and full of absurd situations, and made even harder by seemingly pointless inconvenieces of Living Here. The character arcs usually don’t lead to heroes overcoming their problemsm, changing themselves and improving their lives, but finding the strenght to go on in spite of their situation. Which again, is a very “living under communist goverment” mindset.
Perhaps the closest you can come to experience this atmosphere is in Witcher 3 game, actually! (And it’s probably the most Polish coded cultural export that got popular in English-speaking communities, so). It’s medieval fantasy setting, but I think Velen peasants attitudes toward their situation would translate very well when applied to Polish citizens under communist goverment era.
I would love for other people to give their own examples of such works!
Like, if we take for example MCU, what fics AUs are most popular in Japanese fics? In Spanish fics? What charcters interpretations are the most popular, and how are they different from those appearing most in fics written by authors who are native English speakers? And even then, is there a noticeable difference between US, UK, Australian writers and so on?
Did anybody do a study on it and where can I read it?
I suspect there are whole genres of fics a lot of us don’t even know exist, just because their setting and plot is dependednt on cultural context that is not known widely outsite of native writers.
Like, if US popculture wasn’t such a big export, western could be a pretty niche genre. The specific setting is a big part of it.
I don’t actually read a lot of fic in my native language (which is a shame, now I think about it). But back when I did, in the Harry Potter fandom, there were a few fic types that might’ve been specific to Polish writers.
The boarding school style education is not very popular here, for example. Especially for little kids at 11yo. You MIGHT go to student boarding house for your middle school education, if your school is in a big city and you live far away. But for most definitions of “far away” here you’d be able to easily go back to your parents’ on weekends anyway. The works about students’ and teachers’ daily lives in Hogwarts had a slightly different flavour when written in Polish fandom, influenced by the way education system works here.
The Marauders’ Era fics - especially those focusing on the war - also had some of that “Polish guerrilla during WWII occupation” feel to them. There were also future “second war goes badly” fics where HP era characters would be adults, fighting for years already, frequently from abroad, while Voldemort took over UK and had his dystopian goverment going on (Communist era in Central-Eastern Europe anyone?).
Not specific to HP fandom, but the roadtrip fic HAS a very different form/setting! A Soviet Roadtrip is definitely a separate subgenre. The premise is mostly the same, but the Troublesome Roadtrip Through Communist Country HAS to be in an old, communist era car, which is always on the verge on breakdown. The roads are all bad. The characters contemplate their lives, which are hard, and full of absurd situations, and made even harder by seemingly pointless inconvenieces of Living Here. The character arcs usually don’t lead to heroes overcoming their problemsm, changing themselves and improving their lives, but finding the strenght to go on in spite of their situation. Which again, is a very “living under communist goverment” mindset.
Perhaps the closest you can come to experience this atmosphere is in Witcher 3 game, actually! (And it’s probably the most Polish coded cultural export that got popular in English-speaking communities, so). It’s medieval fantasy setting, but I think Velen peasants attitudes toward their situation would translate very well when applied to Polish citizens under communist goverment era.
I would love for other people to give their own examples of such works!
