Dante's Inferno and Cervantes Don Quixote- Fanfiction?

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Is it me, or is Dante Aligheri's Inferno (and pretty much the rest of the Divine Comedy) basically a sort of fanfiction? Populating Hell, Limbo, Purgatory, and Heaven like he did, he also puts words into the mouth of Virgil, presumably an idol of Dante's.

And then there is Don Quixote. It is pretty much a novel that is not as much fanfiction as it is about a deluded fan, Don Quixote, who thinks he is a knight.

Unless Dante ever spoke to God, I would say yes, fanfiction is an accurate discription.

No, it's plagarism, but it isn't really fanfiction. Dante's Inferno is using Christian mythology as a basis for a story. It's as much a fanfic of christian mythology as Saving Private Ryan is a fanfic of World War 2. Don Quixote is, from what I know of it, a story of human delusion and fantasy. To me fanfiction is written only by amateurs, hence FAN-fiction. Also, I wouldn't call anything publishable fanfiction because of this.

Don Quixote was not fan fiction dedicated to high romance. It was a parody of high romance.

That too. It's possible to be both.

But you know what is fanfiction? A Series of Unfortunate Events. The whole series, while clever and well-written, is just one gigantic homage to Charles Dickens.

Good point. I've never read it, but it seems like, from extracts, a major satire of law. And Harry Potter is really just a different version of those Boy's Own stories set at public schools.

I am not familiar.

There used to be popular stories set in public schools for boys detailing the adventures of gangs of boys getting up to mischief.