The New Owner and a missing author: negotiating authorship in literary creations of online subcultural communities

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the story The New Owner in an attempt to explore how the notion of authorship is negotiated in an online forum-based writing project. It also considers how the characteristics of the internet and the forum influenced the creative processes and the negotiations of authorship. In particular, the paper identifies three dynamics of authorship: shared authorial voice, control over the story, and the impossibility of a ‘beyond-the-screen’ truth. I compare these with dynamics related to George R. R. Martin and Elena Ferrante. These dynamics intersect with online literature, subcultural practices of anonymity, and the mediation of the internet. To discuss these, this paper considers a bugchasing erotic story published in an online forum. The paper concludes by exploring how impossibility is a key component of these online spaces and frame their interactions and cultural productions.