Is Fanfiction Literature?

The other day, I came across Ariel Bissette's video 'Is Fanfiction Literature?'. You can view her video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtw7CSAxs1A

In her video, she posed a good argument and expressed her opinions on the question which you can see in her video. The comments are also worth the read.

Now, I am going to answer the question.

Personally, I do see Fanfiction as literature. Why you ask? Well, I class fanfiction as literature because if we talk about the basic meaning of the word, regardless of whether it's the same world or the same characters, it is still a written story. A lot of fanfiction writers put a lot of time and creativity in to their work so it would be an insult to say it isn't literature.

I both read and write fanfiction and also I write what a lot of people would say 'true literature' which varies from poetry to short stories. 

There is a big controversy with fanfiction because of the writers taking characters out of the world they were put in and putting them in to situations that the character would not ever be in. An example would be Johnlock. However, there have been fanfics which have ultimately become TV Shows or soon to be films, i.e. BBC Sherlock and Fifty Shades Of Grey. 

I personally don't see why it is a problem for people to put their own spin on characters. Whether they put them in likely situations or not, I still view it as Literature.

Yes, you may be using the same characters but you aren't re writing the story in the way of copying, you are being creative and coming up with your own plots. That to I, is worthy of the title 'Literature'.

Fanfiction deserves as much credit as any short story or novel because the creative process is still the same.