Plagiarama!: William Wells Brown and the Aesthetic of Attractions

by Geoffrey Sanborn

Overview

William Wells Brown (1814–1884) was a vocal abolitionist, a frequent antagonist of Frederick Douglass, and the author of Clotel, the first known novel by an African American. He was also an extensive plagiarist, copying at least 87,000 words from close to 300 texts. In this critical study of Brown's work and legacy, Geoffrey Sanborn offers a novel reading of the writer's plagiarism, arguing the act was a means of capitalizing on the energies of mass-cultural entertainments popularized by showmen such as P. T. Barnum. By creating the textual equivalent of a variety show, Brown animated antislavery discourse and evoked the prospect of a pleasurably integrated world.

Brown's key dramatic protagonists were the "spirit of capitalization"—the unscrupulous double of Max Weber's spirit of capitalism—and the "beautiful slave girl," a light-skinned African American woman on the verge of sale and rape. Brown's unsettling portrayal of these figures unfolded within a riotous patchwork of second-hand texts, upset convention, and provoked the imagination. Could a slippery upstart lay the groundwork for a genuinely interracial society? Could the fetishized image of a not-yet-sold woman hold open the possibility of other destinies? Sanborn's analysis of pastiche and plagiarism adds new depth to the study of nineteenth-century culture and the history of African American literature, suggesting modes of African American writing that extend beyond narratives of necessity and purpose, characterized by the works of Frederick Douglass and others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231540582
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	03/08/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Geoffrey Sanborn is professor of English at Amherst College and has taught at Fairfield University, Williams College, and Bard College. His books include Whipscars and Tattoos: The Last of the Mohicans, Moby-Dick, and the Maori; The Sign of the Cannibal: Melville and the Making of a Postcolonial Reader; and, with Samuel Otter, Melville and Aesthetics.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Plagiarama!
2. The Spirit of Capitalization
3. The Aesthetic of Attractions
4. The Beautiful Slave Girl
5. The Sound of Fame
Appendix A: Plagiarism in Brown's Works
Appendix B: Bibliography of Plagiarized Works
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Ezra Greenspan

For years, critics have word-danced around William Wells Brown's habitual acts of 'lifting,' 'borrowing,' and 'adapting' printed texts without attribution. Not Geoffrey Sanborn, who exuberantly names Brown's signature aesthetic practice 'plagiarama!' Dazzlingly original and unvaryingly astute in explicating Brown's performance art, Sanborn also has bigger game in mind, demonstrating the centrality of literary experimentation and unfettered theatricality—often remote from supposed origins in slavery and race—in early African American writing. Altogether impressive, Plagiarama! stages an eye-opening critical performance.

Mat Johnson

How fitting that William Wells Brown, the first African American novelist, would be revealed to be the living incarnation of Brer Rabbit. A riveting read, generously researched and provocative, not just in terms of William Wells Brown but in terms of how we think about the timeless issue of creative plagiarism. In Plagiarama! Geoffrey Sanborn once again shows himself to be a rare treasure: a brilliant critic who is also a thrilling storyteller. This is literary critical history at its best.

Lara Cohen

Through an impressive feat of research, Geoffrey Sanborn has discovered that William Wells Brown lifted a major portion of his writing from other sources. Yet far from evincing a lack of creativity, Sanborn argues how Brown's plagiarisms take an extravagantly transformative approach to language. By setting different texts end to end, Brown stirs and dilates public culture, sounding the impossible in the known world.

Editorial Reviews

Plagiarama! is an important new book that, in addition to this game-changing information, offers a provocative and celebratory reading of Brown’s texts and personae.

MELUS

An impressive work of scholarship that details for the first time Brown's complex carnivalesque artistry.

Modern Philology

This deftly researched and compellingly written account reminds the reader of [William Wells] Brown's power as a writer, and resituates him as both an important antiracist thinker in the Civil War era and a powerful writer who is part of the narrative of 19th-century American culture.... Recommended.

Choice

A dynamic, original discussion about plagiarism and the self-multiplying discursive aesthetics of William Wells Brown.

The ALH Online Review

Should stimulate much-needed discussion on plagiarism and originality, authorship and ethics.

Times Literary Supplement

Sanborn is indispensable for the thoroughness of his examination of [William Wells Brown's] plagiarism. In the appendices to Plagiarama! Sanborn catalogs every case of lifted language and every boosted bit of prose, noting the original source and the total number of words taken.

Gordon Frasern Literature

Sanborn is indispensable for the thoroughness of his examination of [William Wells Brown's] plagiarism. In the appendices to Plagiarama! Sanborn catalogs every case of lifted language and every boosted bit of prose, noting the original source and the total number of words taken.

American Literature - Gordon Fraser

A dynamic, original discussion about plagiarism and the self-multiplying discursive aesthetics of William Wells Brown.

The ALH Online Review Series X