Maybe fantography to distinguish from simple alt-historical, given the focus on a revision/fictionalisation of a historical character. A tradition going back to the (unfortunate) Edisonades - @jessnevins.bsky.social ?
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Or maybe much earlier given fictionalised exploits of historical chivalric figures like Roland?
aug 28, 2025, 10:44 am • 1 0 • view
I think there are at least two tracks of this--the surge in fanfiction of Byron (encouraged by his sharing his commonplace book with his fans and encouraging them to write in it) and similar writers after Byron died, and the surge in fanfiction in the mid-19th century in the US when--
aug 28, 2025, 11:11 am • 6 0 • view
teenage girls wrote Mary Sue fanfiction (there really is no other name for it) in which they save the lives, marriages, and souls of various famous native/indigenous figures and then wrote What Happened After stories bout their marriage to the natives and their children with the natives.
aug 28, 2025, 11:12 am • 5 0 • view
That's what's iffy about the whole thing. Objectively you are making things up to make a real person closer to your idealized (often sexualized) character and in the example you have your erasing their real struggles (or in Byron's case flaws) but when does a person separate into a fiction character
aug 28, 2025, 2:01 pm • 4 0 • view
Your point with the Beatles (that they had already created fictional personas for themselves ) is an interesting one though presumably there can’t be many examples like that.
aug 28, 2025, 2:03 pm • 3 0 • view
In published literature no. In fandom spaces, yes. The bastardization and breakdown of characters already seen through a Hollywood lense are changed even more again through Fan preferences. So a copy of a copy. It's like a purification process that turns a wife beater into a palatable plush toy.
aug 28, 2025, 2:10 pm • 3 0 • view
Oh, definitely! It's particularly pernicious now, when any given fictional portrayal of a real person might go viral and make people think that, for example, Beyonce really is a member of the Illuminati.
aug 28, 2025, 2:04 pm • 3 0 • view
Revisionist isn't quite there. When Hamilton fandom was at its peak you had the infamous modern aus where the characters from the musical were in college or something. But at that point they are writing about the specific versions of real people in a near accurate play but taking them out of context
aug 28, 2025, 2:06 pm • 1 0 • view