Authorship today – is it important?

Authorship… what is it?

Harold Love (2002) describes “Authorship” as “more helpful to define in relation to a series of functions performed during the creation of the work rather than as a single, coherent activity.”

He also describes it as “a form of human work” which validates “individual agency” (Love, 2002).

Attribution studies rarely find a true individual ‘author’ more often finding subtle traces of potential additional authors in the work (Love, 2002).

Does it matter if one takes credit for all?

According to Mark Rose, “Authors do not really create in any literal sense, but rather produce text through complex processes of adaptation and transformation.” (Rose, 1993 p.8)

Does that mean that since we are never actually creating anything new, authorship is in fact irrelevant? Or should the term authorship be restricted to the creation of original ideas and not just how existing ideas are put into words?

If, for example, an author wrote a novel, but their editor changed the language, should they both be accredited as authors? Many would say that it would depend on whether the style had been changed or if new information had been added.

Authorship, is it relevant today?

Authorship continues to be of interest, especially in the press.

The ‘Stieg Larsson’ authorship case has been widely discussed recently in the media. They question whether the Swedish author actually wrote the novels accredited to him. These novels became increasingly popular after the author’s death in 2004. For a news link on this case, click here.

It appears that Stieg Larrson was never considered by his colleagues to be a particularly good writer, which has led to the suspicion that his life partner, Eva Gabrielsson, may have been the talent behind the works. If, as the evidence suggests, this was the case, why did they not publish the book under co-authorship?

Link for Stieg Larrson Homepage.

Gender and authorship – is it still important?

In the past, women could not successfully publish literature under their own name. Do women today still feel the need to hide behind a male pseudonym?

Can the gender of the author be deciphered through the texts they write? Many feel that particularly the characters in a novel betray the gender of the author (Love, 2002).

So is it possible that, in the Stieg Larsson case, his partner did not feel they would sell as many books if her name were on the cover? Or did she feel that the books would not even be published if she were co-author? Do men today still get more opportunities than women? Or did Stieg feel he needed a ‘female’ touch to his books?

So is Authorship still important today?

Yes, authorship still appears to be as important as ever, though much has changed. There are now many successfully published women, J.K.Rowling being one of the most famous and wealthy.

In the Stieg Larsson case, it is possible that Stieg himself came up with the ideas for his novels and his partner Eva merely reviewed his work. Or it could have been a joint project and she did not mind him taking the credit. Or she may have felt that her name should have been on the cover, but Stieg believed that, because the basic ideas were his, he should be the sole author. Regardless of Eva’s reasoning, the public appears to want the name of the person who wrote the words to be on the cover.

References:

· Love, H. (2002) Attributing Authorship: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

· Rose, M. (1993) Authors and Owners: The Invention of Copyright. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.