Pillaging Middle-Earth: Self-Plagiarism in Smith of Wootton Major
2014; Mythopoeic Society; Volume: 32; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0146-9339
Autores Tópico(s)Educational Methods and Media Use
ResumoPABLO PICASSO ONCE REMARKED, We must pick out what is good for us where we can find it--except from our own works. I have a horror of copying myself (10). This was never a concern for Tolkien; he borrowed, reused, and adapted so frequently from his own work that John D. Rateliff has suggested that had a knack for autoplagiarism (History of Hobbit [History] 370). (1) Despite Tolkien's inventive mind, he sometimes struggled to write; (2) rather than create ex nihilo, he simply re-created, recycling earlier material into new forms. This wouldn't be an issue except for fact that one of tenets of modern literature is originality. Since Enlightenment, writers have been hard-pressed to produce works of novelty--those who achieve this feat are often praised. Conversely, those who give way to unoriginality are condemned as minor, inconsequential, or impotent, and it is assumed that they are simply not good enough. (3) Smith of Wootton Major is arguably Tolkien's best minor work. However, story is heavily, even superfluously, indebted to his legendarium. Defining and Considering Self-Plagiarism word does not appear in OED, nor does its equivalent reason why is plain: word is inherently self-contradictory. If plagiarism is theft (OED), surely one cannot steal from oneself. (4) For my purposes, self-plagiarism, as a term, is simply of borrowing from one's previous work without acknowledging it. Faking Literature, K.K. Ruthven defines as the use of bits of one's earlier writings as unmarked components of a 'new' text (140). (5) It is sometimes assumed that plagiarism is, strictly speaking, direct lifting of whole passages, verbatim, from one work for use in another. This is, of course, most common form of plagiarism; however, plagiarism also includes reuse of ideas. OED defines plagiarism as the action or practice of taking someone else's work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one's own. Although there are certainly places where Smith's language parallels Tolkien's other stories, was more inclined to refashion a setting, reuse an object, or recycle a character type. This is not same thing as a theme. While a theme is a salient abstract idea that can be found recurring in a number of literary works, is a concrete detail that has been taken from one literary work and placed in another (Baldick). This would include such things as objects, characters, actions, scenarios, word strings, and settings. studies, Tom Shippey was first to draw attention to Tolkien's self-plagiarism; in Road to Middle-earth, he asserts, In Lord of Rings his invention came, to begin with, from a sort of self-plagiarism (105). particular, he notes that hobbits' first three real encounters contain characters derived from Tolkien's poem The Adventures of Tom Bombadil--the Willow-man, Tom Bombadil, and Barrow-wight (105). (6) John D. Rateliff and Mike Foster have also explored Tolkien's autoplagiarism. Grima Wormtongue: and His Sources, Rateliff makes a compelling case for 'gollumisation' of (16). He points out that Wormtongue is analogous to Gollum in following respects: both are warped, both speak of themselves in third person (7), both are known by their epithets, and both are referred to using simile like a dog. Most compelling of all is his assertion that both undergo same moral regression. Each becomes the doorkeeper of his own prison, then a beggar, then a murderer and (probably) a cannibal (17). end, each destroys not only himself but also his master--Saruman and Ring, respectively. Mike Foster looks specifically at Tolkien's autoplagiaristic motifs, noting that betrayal by a loyal member of a company, a sacrificed severed finger or hand, and creator's jealous love for his creation found in Silmarillion also appear in hobbit tales (Teaching Tolkien 259). …
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