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

[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 :-).