I found it. Honest guv!
Tue, 2009-11-10 23:25
#1
I found it. Honest guv!
Andrew Motion is being accused of plagiarism but apparently the accuser just doesn't get it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/09/andrew-motion-rebuts-plagiar...
Academically, reproducing the words of another is only plagiarism if you try to pass it off as your own. As long as you acknowledge your source, it isn't plagiarism.
My favourite Ezra Pound collection is 'Cathay', which is "for the most part from the Chinese of
Rihaku, from the notes of the late Ernest Fenollosa, and the Decipherings of the professors Mori and Arig" I don't think this makes him a plagiarist.
Similarly, if an artist pieces together a collage of scraps from other artists, the act of assembling them is art in its own right.
It may be that Motion hasn't given the pastiche any added value, and if that's the case it is a bit sad but still not, strictly speaking, plagiarism.
jude