Books & Movies, Writing

Classics, Modern AUs, and Reframing Reality

October 20, 2021

I guess this is what I’ve been thinking about lately? I mean, if you’re going down the rabbit hole of Jane Austen fanfiction, there’s quite a bit to discover.

What are modern AUs?

AU is a term that’s short for Alternate Universe! It’s generally applied to fanfiction (e.g. coffee shop AUs, historical AUs, fantasy AUs) where a writer takes an established work and rewrites the characters into a different setting.

A modern AU generally takes characters from fantasy or historical (or even sci-fi) works and places them into a current day setting. High school/college AUs also apply here. If the work isn’t set in the modern day, there’s probably a modern AU to be found somewhere.

This is how we get writing that explores the core of the characters and/or their relationships, and how they are constant even when placed in different settings.

Okay, so reframing reality

I guess I say “reframing reality” in a pretty loose sense, but hear me out.

The fascinating thing about the modern AU is that it allows us to relate to characters in a new, yet familiar way. It takes the characters and recontextualizes them in a different setting. It’s a little like ordering the same coffee from different shops — it’s the same order, but it tastes slightly different.

In this way, audiences can still enjoy the familiarity of the characters (or story) mixed with the author’s own take on the overall work. Besides, perhaps there is some comfort to be taken from seeing fictional characters transplanted into a setting we can recognize more easily.

Modern AUs/retellings and the role they play with classics

Now I’ll take a slight turn and look at the interplay between modern AUs and classics. Since many classics tend to be set in the past, it’s not uncommon for them to be adapted in the context of the modern world. Many times, retelling a classic through a modern perspective can bring out points that the original audience would have understood, but aren’t as clear to us today.

One example of this is in the Lizzie Bennet Diaries — a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries reframes the importance of marriage in Austen’s time by swapping it with a career opportunity. Instead of turning down Mr. Collin’s marriage proposal, Elizabeth refuses a job offer that could have done wonders for her career. While the marriage refusal may not strike a chord with audiences today, turning down the job opportunity does.

Again, modern AUs show the core of characters that audiences already know. Whether they’re in Regency England, outer space, or any other conceivable setting, they shouldn’t be unrecognizable.