Monday, August 02, 2010

A pastiche of personas

By the time I got to the office this morning, three different people had already e-mailed me the link to a New York Times article on plagiarism (read it here). The article indulges in the usual hand-wringing about the ease of copying from the Internet, but it also suggests a connection between a rise in plagiarism and a change in the concept of personal identity.

The article quotes Susan D. Blum, an anthropologist a the University of Notre Dame, whose research among undergraduate college students led her to conclude that "student writing exhibits some of the same qualities of pastiche that drive other creative endeavors today--TV shows that constantly reference other shows or rap music that samples from earlier songs."

Let's just overlook the fact that pastiche has been driving "creative endeavors" longer than television has existed--witness, for instance, James Joyce or Jean Toomer. More interesting is Blum's assertion about the decline of unitary identity. According to the article, Blum said "the idea of an author whose singular effort creates an original work is rooted in Enlightenment ideas of the individual," while "undergraduates are less interested in cultivating a unique and authentic identity...than in trying on many different personas, which the Web enables with social networking."

Blum seems to be saying that our students live in a multiple-choice world in which "all of the above" is always a viable option; they need not limit themselves to one identity each, and "If you are not so worried about presenting yourself as absolutely unique, then it's O.K. if you say other people's words, it's O.K. if you say things you don't believe, it's O.K. if you write papers you couldn't care less about because you accomplish the task, which is turning something in and getting a grade."

Blum wants us to recognize that our "notion of authorship and originality was born, it flourished, and it may be waning," but authorship is not giving up without a fight and neither is the notion of integrity--a word, the OED reminds us, that springs from the Latin "integer" and suggests a sense of being whole, undivided, sound and complete.

Can integrity spring from a pastiche of personas?

Where does a person devoted to improvising new identities from a pastiche of fragments experience wholeness?

And what happens when the pastiche identity encounters an academic culture devoted to integrity?

I don't know the answers but those of us involved in teaching writing had better be thinking about the questions.

1 comment:

Bardiac said...

I think you'll find that any student who is proud of a piece of art, performance, or whatever will have a very clear sense of individual authorship.

As Chaucer would say (talking pastiche!), "There is nothing new that is not old."

It may be easier for students to plagiarize from the web, and may be easier for us to google when they do, but there's nothing new at all in a few students being lazy.

I try to convince myself that I can combat the occasionally lazy student with plenty of pre-writing and preparatory work. (I live a rich and full fantasy life!)