ENGL 123(F) Borrowing and Stealing: Originality in Literature and Culture (W)
Someone once said that bad poets borrow and good poets steal, thus suggesting
that acts of theft, as well as their subsequent cover-ups, may lie behind some of
the best and seemingly most original works of art in history. And it's not just the
poets. More recently, an exhibition of artworks that employ copyrighted material, called "Illegal Art," has directly challenged current U.S. copyright law. Given
the ubiquity of visual, electronic, and audio sampling in contemporary art, one
might wonder if anyone even bothers to create alibis for today's artistic thefts.
This course will investigate ideas about artistic and intellectual influence, inspiration, borrowing, revision, appropriation, and outright stealing. We'll ask a
series of questions as we look at a variety of material, mostly literary, but also
visual and musical, that troubles ideas about novel and derivative art. What's so
original about original art? Where does influence stop and plagiarism begin?
What must be forgotten, or remembered, about earlier works of art for a new one
to appear to be just that-new? What becomes of our image of the artist as a
lone figure of genius in works that make ample use of others' material? The
course will consider these questions in part by reading various theories of originality and imitation, as well as recent re-workings of older literary texts, such as
a contemporary re-writing of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray by novelist Will Self (in a book sub-titled "An Imitation"). We'll listen to music that
relies heavily on the sampling of other works, as well as look at collage art in
various forms. In addition we will read new considerations of copyright law by
legal scholars to gain some sense of originality's shifting legal status. Throughout, we'll refine our sense of the relations among fiction, art, originality, and
imitation by studying some of the best acts of artistic and intellectual theft of the
recent past. Possible authors and works to be studied include Wordsworth and
Coleridge, Oscar Wilde, Sigmund Freud, Vladimir Nabokov, Andy Warhol,
Will Self, and essays on copyright law.
Format: discussion/seminar. Requirements: 20 pages of writing in the form of
frequent short papers, active class participation, and the possibility of a final creative project.
No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 19 (expected: 19). Preference given to first
year students. This course is part of the Critical Reasoning and Analytical Skills
initiative.