Covets

[giandujakiss]

The Afterlife of Character, 1726-1825

The Afterlife of Character, 1726-1825 reconstructs how eighteenth-century British readers invented further adventures for beloved characters, including Gulliver, Falstaff, Pamela, and Tristram Shandy. Far from being close-ended and self-contained, the novels and plays in which these characters first appeared were treated by many as merely a starting point, a collective reference perpetually inviting augmentation through an astonishing wealth of unauthorized sequels. Characters became an inexhaustible form of common property, despite their patent authorship. Readers endowed them with value, knowing all the while that others were doing the same and so were collectively forging a new mode of virtual community.

By tracing these practices, David A. Brewer shows how the literary canon emerged as much "from below" as out of any of the institutions that have been credited with their invention.

Except I have to take issue with this:

Indeed, he reveals the astonishing degree to which authors had to cajole readers into granting them authority over their own creations, authority that seems self-evident to a modern audience.

Eh, not so much, no.

(via as_others_see_us)

Comments

[umadoshi]

That looks like an interesting read. ^^ I kind of skimmed past the reference in as_others_see_us this morning, so thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[giandujakiss]

You're welcome :-). I gather from academics on my LJ FList that this is well-known to them, but I had no idea fanfic went back so far. Just lends credence to the notion that it's really a fundamental human impulse.

[umadoshi]

Interesting discussion going on over on your LJ post! ^_^ Yeah, I'm very strongly in the camp that believes "fanfiction" is close kin (if not the exact same thing) to large swathes of literary and oral tradition. I'm very upfront with most people about the fact that I read and write fanfic, and on the rare occasion that someone's disparaging about it to my face I'll cheerfully spend the next little while telling them that a lot of Greek dramas are basically fanfiction, along with some Shakespeare, Dante, pretty much everyone who's ever looked at the Arthurian mythos... I find it pretty fascinating.

...wow, though--the book is terrifyingly expensive on Amazon.ca. O_o

[ratcreature]

Heh, yeah, this mostly seems to show that audience attitudes really haven't changed all that much.

[giandujakiss]

Over at LJ, people who have read it says that he mentions modern fic, but mostly he was concerned with attitudes toward fanfic at a time when novels themselves were new and meant something different in society. They say that the intro and conclusion, in particular, are a good read, and someone says I can take a look at their copy, so I'll check it out :-).