I would like to posit the idea that, as in musical phrases, literary phrases, when used in a different context *and* for a different purpose, may constitute as borrowed, rather than stolen, ideas.
The ending of Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech could fall into that category in my mind, although I can't say anything about his larger works of plagiarism. He takes the ideas and words but re-renders them with a more powerful, more broad purpose. It is also not clear in the evidence given that the idea of "let[ting] freedom ring" was particularly unique to Archibald Carey. It may have been a common anthemic expression within the civil rights movement.
But borrowing someone else's good idea and re-rendering it for your own use is an extremely common human principle and I think there is a difference between that and plagiarism.
that's why i like their example of eliot. yeah, he plagiarized, but he was also a poet and is widely acknowledged and in fact praised for his paraphrasing, allusions to, and outright quoting of other writers' work in his work. so how is that different than plagiarism? i don't actually know. a lot of it has to do with context and audience expectation...but that's why i always end up taking a lot of time each semester to talk about plagiarism with my classes. it's an odd intersection of writers who riff on other writers like a book is a folk song or a blues tune and writers who have to be as fastidious about citing their sources as scientists in order to convincingly prove their point. it's weird.
Wonderful article.
ReplyDeleteI would like to posit the idea that, as in musical phrases, literary phrases, when used in a different context *and* for a different purpose, may constitute as borrowed, rather than stolen, ideas.
The ending of Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech could fall into that category in my mind, although I can't say anything about his larger works of plagiarism. He takes the ideas and words but re-renders them with a more powerful, more broad purpose. It is also not clear in the evidence given that the idea of "let[ting] freedom ring" was particularly unique to Archibald Carey. It may have been a common anthemic expression within the civil rights movement.
But borrowing someone else's good idea and re-rendering it for your own use is an extremely common human principle and I think there is a difference between that and plagiarism.
that's why i like their example of eliot. yeah, he plagiarized, but he was also a poet and is widely acknowledged and in fact praised for his paraphrasing, allusions to, and outright quoting of other writers' work in his work. so how is that different than plagiarism? i don't actually know. a lot of it has to do with context and audience expectation...but that's why i always end up taking a lot of time each semester to talk about plagiarism with my classes. it's an odd intersection of writers who riff on other writers like a book is a folk song or a blues tune and writers who have to be as fastidious about citing their sources as scientists in order to convincingly prove their point. it's weird.
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