Abstract
The main aim of the present work "Fan Fiction as Women's Literature of a New Era" is to describe a specific literary form, which has been gaining popularity in the Internet era. After providing an "apology speech" of sorts to establish fan fiction as an object of research, and briefly introducing the current research on fan fiction, the present work defines the term "fan fiction" in the following manner: fan fiction is a text derived from a canonical text and its dominant feature is its intertextual relationship to the canon; fan fiction emerges as fan texts within a fandom; fan fiction means unauthorized works that do not bring any profit to their creators.
The present work then summarizes a history of literary manipulations that has lead to the emergence of fan fiction, in the Czech Republic and abroad. To provide this mostly literature-centered work with a broader perspective, the following chapter provides some statistics on fan fiction writers and readers, concluding that most of them are women between 20 and 30.
The second part of the chapter offers several examples of fan representation in popular culture. The present work then proceeds with a genre typology of fan fiction and describes the types of intertextual relationships entered into by fan fiction works.
The core of the present work lies in chapters 7 and 8, dealing with fan fiction erotica and slash, respectively showing how fan fiction works challenge the prevalent gender and sexual norms. The next chapter shows some language and other specifics of Czech fan fiction, while the last chapter examines whether fan fiction, despite its derivative nature, might in turn influence the character of its canonical texts.