From a collaborative view, what was a fairly direct cause and effect scenario (individual author + inspiration = original literary masterpiece) becomes something much less clear. An individual is always located within a shifting context of texts from which he or she draws to produce—often with substantial and varied support from other writers, editors, spouses or partners, and institutions—a work that will be termed "original." Collaboration insists on recognizing this oft-hidden contribution of others as an important component of meaning, something our traditional understanding of the author persists in ignoring or displacing.
Karell provides a close analysis of the various means by which writers work with others to produce their final literary products. Methods include traditional joint writing practices such as ghostwriting or "edited" texts, as in the case of Mourning Dove and ethnographer Lucullus McWhorter; the incorporation of existing diaries or letters from other writers, for example, Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose with Mary Hallock Foote; and dual-authored texts such as those produced by Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris. By challenging the seductive myth of the solitary writer within the context of the myth of the independent westerner, Karell makes the compelling argument that collaboration is an inescapable part of writing.
"In its mission to theorize collaboration as a crucial, even essential, but often overlooked, aspect of literary production, and in its particular intervention into the field of western American literature, this is an important, timely, and exciting book."—Journal of American Studies
Overview
From a collaborative view, what was a fairly direct cause and effect scenario (individual author + inspiration = original literary ...