Fw: Groupbath of groupthink: VN & Pyncheon

[Dave Monroe]

A topic of no small interest here, methinks, esp.
given recent and ongoing discussions here.
Unfortunately, I still haven't worked out my alleged
online OED access (and I don't even have the code
handy), but ...

Main Entry: ge·nius 
Pronunciation: 'jEn-y&s, 'jE-nE-&s
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural ge·nius·es or ge·nii 
/-nE-"I/
Etymology: Latin, tutelary spirit, natural
inclinations, from gignere to beget
Date: 1513
1 a plural genii : an attendant spirit of a person or
place b plural usually genii : a person who influences
another for good or bad 
2 : a strong leaning or inclination : PENCHANT
3 a : a peculiar, distinctive, or identifying
character or spirit b : the associations and
traditions of a place c : a personification or
embodiment especially of a quality or condition
4 plural usually genii : SPIRIT, JINNI
5 plural usually geniuses a : a single strongly marked
capacity or aptitude <had a genius for getting along
with boys -- Mary Ross> b : extraordinary intellectual
power especially as manifested in creative activity c
: a person endowed with transcendent mental
superiority; 
especially : a person with a very high intelligence
quotient synonym see GIFT

http://m-w.com/

Not exactly sure why 1513 is the crucial date here
(must ... access ... OED ...), but ... but I'm more
immediately interested in the realted problematics of
"authorship," "authority," et al., which just happen
to coalesce ca., say, the English Renaissance (and
it's perhaps no coincidence that my searches here
produced at least a plurality of Shakespere
references).  See, e.g. ...

http://www.hanover.edu/philos/ejournal/archive/v6n3/brent/genius.html

Which namechecks ...

Woodmansee, Martha.  "The Genius and the Copyright,"
   Eighteenth-Century Studies 17 (1984): 446-48.

For which see also ...

Woodmansee, Martha.  The Author, Art and the Market:
   Rereading the History of Aesthetics.  New York:
   Columbia UP, 1994.

As well as nigh unto anything in ...

Jaszi, Peter and Martha Woodmansee, eds.  
   The Construction of Authorship: Textual
   Appropriation in Law and Literature.
   Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1994. 

And here's a nice bibliography ...

http://www.wu-wien.ac.at/wwwu/institute/slawisch/weitlan/TagungKSO/doku/IntProp.htm

And a few more personal favorites ...

Abrams, M.H.  The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic
   Theory and the Critical Tradition.  New York:
   Oxford UP, 1953.

Foucault, Michel.  "What is an Author?"  Language,
   Counter-Memory, Practice.  Trans. Donald F. 
   Bouchard and Sherry Simon.  Ed. Donald F. Bouchard.
   Ithaca, New York: Cornell UP, 1977.  124-127.

Greene, Thomas M.  The Light in Troy: Imitation and
   Discovery in Renaissance Poetry.  New Haven, CT:
   Yale UP, 1982.

Guillory, John.  Poetic Authority: Spenser, Milton
   and Literary History.  NY: Columbia UP, 1983.

Jaszi, Peter.  "On the Author Effect: Contemporary
   Copyright and Collective Creativity."  The
   Construction of Authorship: Textual Appropriation
   in Law and Literature.  Ed. Martha Woodmansee and
   Peter Jaszi.  Durham: Duke UP, 1994.  29-56.

Patterson, Lymon Ray, and Stanley W. Lindberg.
   The Nature of Copyright: A Law of User's Rights.
   Athens: U Georgia P, 1991.

Rose, Mark. "The Author as Proprietor: Donaldson v.
   Becket and the Genealogy of Modern Authorship."
   Representations 23 (1988): 51-85.

__________.  Authors and Owners: The Invention of
   Copyright.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1993.

... being what I could cut an paste here, off the top
of my head.  Think, "author," "authorship," "authorial
intention," "creativity," "genius," "individuality,"
"influence," "intertextuality," et al. ...

--- Preparation Heche <pantychrist at hotmail.com> wrote:
> I seem to recall (from a classics course I took in
> my undergrad days) that the definition of genius has

> undergone a massive transformation since it was 
> coined [...].  I don't know exactly how this fits
> into our discussion of Pynchon but maybe someone
> else can figure that out for me...

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