Roland Barthes's "The Death of the Author" is a foundational text for scholars who are addressing questions of authorship and textual ownership in English studies and its neighboring disciplines. Barthes's essay is typically presented without significant attention to the circumstances and context surrounding its initial English…

In this review, I look back to the first issue of College English, and then across the years to trace the ways in which "Intellectual Property" (and this distinction from intellectual property is important) has been addressed by authors in the pages of the journal. I distinguish two periods of time marked by different approaches to IP issues, and…

When, why, and how do college students come to value their writing as intellectual property? How do their conceptions of intellectual property reflect broader understandings and personal engagements with concepts of authorship, collaboration, identification, and capital? We address these questions based on findings from the Stanford Study of…

Suggests that moves to dispersed authorship signal not a challenge to the old ideology of authorship, but rather its appropriation for commercial ends. Identifies alternatives to this appropriation and explains why embracing these alternatives is important. Concludes that scholars of rhetoric and composition need to identify, theorize, practice,…

The author uses the example of a text a student was not allowed to display on his course Web site to explore how and why institutional ideologies particular to the historical development of composition and creative writing--especially when viewed in conjunction with current copyright law--render students' multimedia compositions illegitimate. He…

Recent, highly productive discussions of intellectual property and authorship in English studies have concentrated on two broad areas of inquiry. Scholars have repeatedly asserted fair use principles to mobilize resistance against the legal trends restricting texts' circulation. At the same time, growing appreciation of student writing and other…

Argues that whatever the value of recent proposals to revive the "author" in literary studies, such proposals overlook the adverse ways in which proprietary authorship shapes the law governing textual practices among scholars, teachers, and students. Reopens a conversation on such matters involving the fields of law and literary theory…

Suggests a plagiarism policy that would respect present concerns and discipline but would allow for an enlarged range of definitions of and motivations for plagiarism. Brings to bear contemporary theoretical approaches that take issue with authoring as an autonomous, individual, original act. (TB)