Event overview
Goldsmiths Literature Seminar
Eva Hayles Gledhill
The development of modern copyright law, and the rise of the literary celebrity, are trends linked by the core concept of authorship. This paper traces the development of nineteenth century literary fandoms and fan practices - from Byron’s Romantic celebrity, through to the women who propositioned Longfellow – through the lens of gender and space. The legitimacy of certain claims of authorship above others was enshrined in law partly as a response to the practices of fans, and those who would exploit fandom for financial gain. The authors who could access legal recourse to protect their work were almost exclusively men aligned with what Habermas termed ‘the public sphere’, whilst their fandoms were very often imagined as being (if not actually) composed of women who were significantly excluded from such discourse. In daring to step outside the domestic sphere to engage in the pursuit of erotic and artistic, female literary fans challenged dominant constructs of gendered spatial relations. Debates over authorship and copyright are as much about public space as those about enclosure; as Michel de Certeau recognised in categorising the fan as a ‘poacher’ on the land of the literary text.
For more information, contact Tanguy Harma
tharm009@gold.ac.uk
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 16 Oct 2014 | 6:30pm - 8:00pm |
Accessibility
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