‘Just a bit of fluff and happiness’: Examining Romantic Rewritings of Respair in YA Sexual Assault Narrative Fanfiction

Abstract

Drawing on the concept of feminist respair, this paper takes up fanfiction written in response to two young adult (YA) sexual assault narratives and considers how the trauma in each is transformed through romantic retellings. This surfaces discursively, including but not limited to respectful relationships built on friend/ally/ship, familial support, desire and love, and sometimes, consensual sexual pleasure.