Shakespeare and paradigms of early modern authorship

Clare, Janet

Abstract

The essay examines current thinking on early modern authorship within the competitive economies of the theatre and publishing industries. In the wake of Foucault's seminal essay, 'What is an Author?', there has been much investigation of the status, the branding, the proprietary and moral rights of the author in the early modern period and claims made for the emergence and birth of the author. Janet Clare claims that while authors were increasingly alert to authorship being wrongly claimed, the late sixteenth to early seventeenth-century was a moment of transition and uncertainty. Unlike Ben Jonson not all authors vigorously identified with and laid claim to their work. The author's emergence was a slow and fluctuating process.

Citation

Clare, J. Shakespeare and paradigms of early modern authorship. Journal of Early Modern Studies, 1(1), 137-153. https://doi.org/10.13128/JEMS-2279-7149-10641

• Deposit Date: Nov 13, 2014
• Journal: Journal of early modern studies
• Print ISSN: 2279-7149
• Publisher: Firenze University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 1
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 137-153
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13128/JEMS-2279-7149-10641
• Keywords: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616, Authorship, Early modern, Jonson, Ben, 1573?-1637, REF 2014 submission
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/465369
• Additional Information: Copy of article first published in Journal of early modern studies, 2012, v.1, issue 1