Original Copy: Plagiarism and Originality in Nineteenth-Century Literature by Robert Macfarlane

Abstract

MLR, Io3.3, 2oo8 839 reversal of the conventional view of poetry and patriotism as antitheses and a broad ening of the canon such that disparate responses towar might be admitted. David Goldie's 'Was There a Scottish War Literature?' examines thework of Scottish First World War poets in terms of a number of uneasy formal and cultural alliances. In a later section, Roderick Watson asks how class and national allegiances mingle with the exigencies ofwar in thework of Scottish poets of the Second World War. Peter McDonald's essay on Louis MacNeice brings to the foreconcerns about nationality and responsibility and about public and private commitment. Brendan Corcoran's essay and others in the final section of thebook on Heaney, Muldoon, and thepoetry of theTroubles return to this theme. Some of thebest essays here are thosewhich invite the reader to rethinkpreviously held convictions. Fran Brearton's 'A War of Friendship: Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon' provides a useful corrective to tendencies to view war poetry as always 'ex periential' and 'anti-war' (p. 209). Similarly, John Lyon and Jon Stallworthy revisit W H. Auden's andWilfred Owen's assertions that 'poetrymakes nothing happen' and that 'the Poetry is in the pity', offering thought-provoking assessments of the nuances of both. Claire M. Tylee's well-argued 'BritishHolocaust Poetry: Songs of Experience' restores toprominence a range ofBritish-Jewish poets. The collection stops just short of a full consideration of poetry from and about current conflicts. This may be because, as earlier contributors note of the establish ment of a canon of First World War poetry, it isnecessary for time to pass before a significant body ofwork can emerge. Nevertheless, The Oxford Handbook ofBritish and IrishWar Poetry offers a thorough, inclusive, and invaluable guide to the field, combining accessible and informativeoverviews with original and insightfulresearch. UNIVERSITY OF EXETER Jo GILL Original Copy: Plagiarism and Originality inNineteenth-Century Literature. By ROBERT MACFARLANE. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2007. xii+244 pp. ?30. ISBN 978-O-I9-929650-7. This perceptive study investigates a 'reappraisal of literaryoriginality and plagia rism' between I859 and I900' (p. 6). Macfarlane argues that in the firsthalf of the nineteenth century 'a crisis of authenticity in literature [. . .]was brought about by the advent of techniques ofmass production' (p. 24) but a change came from the late i850s onwards as 'the inventive reuse of thewords ofothers [. . .]came increasingly to be discerned as an authentic formof creativity' (p. 8). The readings that Macfarlane produces to support his claims are provocative and fruitful,offeringnew insights into links among theworks ofDickens, Eliot, Pater,Wilde, and thenow less-read Charles Reade and Lionel Johnson. I do, nevertheless, have a reservation about this study. Macfarlane argues that in thisperiod 'inheritance' came to 'replace the image of debt' (p. 48) as the defining characteristic of literarypilfering.He also writes of Shelley's 'anxiety at influence' (p. 30) and notes that the textshe examines here do not 'conceal' or 'deny' thenotion of 'aprecursor or precursors' (p. I3). Strange thatsuch tropes are used in a book thatmakes only one (rather dismissive) reference (p. I85 n.) toHarold Bloom and The Anxiety of Influence (New York: Oxford University Press, I973). Not that Macfarlane copies Bloom, far from it. While Bloom reads literary inheritance as a burden that must be concealed and negotiated even to thedeath,Macfarlane's study neatly argues theopen and collaborative response of authors toworks of thepast. So why the concealment of Bloom? Iwish I knew.Macfarlane's otherwise convincing arguments begin with two theories of originality: creatio, an ex nihilomaking, versus inventio, a creation that relies on an encounter with thatwhich already exists. As 840 Reviews Macfarlane explains, creatio posits art as 'an addition towhat exists', inventio as 'an edition of it' (p. I), and he reads this split in thewriting of several finde siecle authors as evidence of awider social debate about origins and originality.Macfarlane begins with Edward Young (I 759) and theRomantic poets who answered his call fora genius which 'grows' and 'isnotmade' (p. i8).Macfarlane then traces a swing away from this perception firstin theworks ofBrowning, whose poetry envisions God as theonly au tonomous creator.He argues that a growing sense of the...