Canon (fiction)

Canon (fiction)

In fiction, canon is the conceptual material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are considered to be non-canon. It is used in two slightly different meanings: first, "it refers to the overall set of storylines, premises, settings, and characters offered by the source media text". In this sense, canon is "the original work from which the fan fiction author borrows," or "the original media on which the fan fictions are based." Secondly, it is used "as a descriptor of specific incidents, relationships, or story arcs that take place within the overall canon"; thus certain incidents or relationships may be described as being canon or not. The alternative term mythology is often used, especially to refer either to a richly detailed fictional canon requiring a large degree of suspension of disbelief (e.g. an entire imaginary world and history), or to a central thread of storytelling running through a broad fictional canon that may episodically wander into many side plots with little connection to that thread.

The use of the word "canon" in reference to a set of texts derives from Biblical canon, the set of books regarded as scripture, and which are contracted with non-canonical Apocrypha. The term was first used by analogy in the context of fiction to refer to the Sherlock Holmes stories and novels, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to distinguish those works from subsequent pastiches by other authors by Ronald Knox in a 1911 essay "Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes". It has subsequently been applied to many media franchises. Among these are science fiction franchises such as Star Trek, Star Wars, Halo, Mass Effect and Doctor Who, in which many stories have been told in different media, some of which contradict or appear to contradict each other. In many comedy franchises canon is often contradictory as plots are designed for being humorous and not necessarily being correct.