Ben Jonson and Possessive Authorship

In this 2002 book, Ben Jonson is viewed within the context of the history of authorship and intellectual property.

Joseph Loewenstein (Author)

9780521812177, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 June 2002

236 pages, 7 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.52 kg

"On every page of this book, readers will find something stimulating and challenging." Modern Philology

What is the history of authorship, of invention, of intellectual property? Joseph Loewenstein describes the fragmentary and eruptive emergence of a key phase of the bibliographical ego, a specifically Early Modern form of authorial identification with printed writing. In the work of many playwrights and non-dramatic writers - and especially that of Ben Jonson - that identification is tinged, remarkably, with possessiveness. This 2002 book examines the emergence of possessive authorship within a complex industrial and cultural field. It traces the prehistory of modern copyright both within the monopolistic practices of London's acting troupes and its Stationers' Company and within a Renaissance cultural heritage. Under the pressures of modern competition, a tradition of literary, artistic and technological imitation began to fissure, unleashing jealous accusations of plagiarism and ingenious new fantasies of intellectual privacy. Perhaps no-one was more creatively attuned to this momentous transformation in Early Modern intellectual life than Ben Jonson.

List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
1. An introduction to bibliographical biography
2. Community properties
3. Upstart crows and other emergencies
4. Jonson, Martial and the mechanics of plagiarism
5. Scripts in the marketplace: Jonson and editorial repossession
6. Afterword: the second folio
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: plays & playwrights [DSG], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD]