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Recounting the Author

Grgorinic, Natalija
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1333512288

Abstract Details

2012, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, English.
In this dissertation it is argued that all literary authorship is to a greater or lesser degree a product of labor of more than one person and that, as such, all literary authorship is collaborative. For the purpose of examining this collaborative aspect of authorship this dissertation deals exclusively with the examples of unconcealed literary collaboration. Among these, the examples of conjugal collaborations of Michael Dorris and Louise Erdrich, Peter Redgrove and Penelope Shuttle, and Julio Cortázar and Carol Dunlop are used to investigate the usefulness of marriage as a metaphor most frequently employed in the descriptions of overt collaboration. The tentative conclusion reached is that collaboration in terms of literary authorship requires a more suitable terminology, one that would go beyond the romantic or romanticized language of shared intimacy. Another key premise is that the idea of authorship as an exclusive solitary activity leaves a particular mark on the process of literary creation itself, as well as on the very activity of writing. Here novels written by collaborative couples (The Crown of Columbus), but also novels written by smaller (The Caverns) or larger (Invisible Seattle) groups were used to explain how that which is considered to be a ‘proper’ way of writing influences both the character and the reception of a particular text. The name of the author (whether singular or plural), as well as the pseudonym, are described as indicators of relative authorial plurality and shared authorial responsibility, with any name provided as the name of the author symbolizing the necessity of human involvement with the text as well as the other participants in the literary exchange. The model of a particular dyadic relationship established between the text and any person who interacts with it (in any capacity) is offered to account for the notion of literary authorship as a process rather than an act. In this process numerous individuals through the interaction with each other as well as with the text assume responsibility for that text. In the end, the peculiar circumstances of this dissertation’s authorship itself are examined in the context of the key ideas presented. The main conclusion of this dissertation is that examples of open literary collaboration broaden the understanding of literary authorship as a whole, pointing to the fact that all authorship relies at least to some small degree on sharing the creative labor as well as the responsibility for the product of that labor.
Gary Stonum, PhD (Advisor)
Thrity Umrigar, PhD (Committee Member)
Christopher Flint, PhD (Committee Member)
Laura Hengehold, PhD (Committee Member)
273 p.
American Literature; British and Irish Literature; Comparative Literature; Gender; Literature; Modern Literature
collaborative authorship; literary authorship; genius; co-authorship; authors' rights; marriage; penname; pseudonym; anonymity, literary text

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Grgorinic, N. (2012). Recounting the Author [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1333512288

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Grgorinic, Natalija. Recounting the Author. 2012. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1333512288.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Grgorinic, Natalija. "Recounting the Author." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1333512288

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1333512288
989
© 2012, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.