Plagiarism, or a generational shift towards "magpie writing"?

[sensaes]

'Some students, it seems, have shrugged off the old illusion of authorship in which “authors had a moral right to their own words and ideas” and have embraced instead “an ever-changing version of a self” involving “flexible social interaction and creative collaboration.” Authorship in this world is collaborative and “fluid.” It “celebrates the kind

Comments

[hafren]

In my own field, which is creative writing, I'm not entirely averse to the magpie approach, as long as - crucially - it is honestly presented. I've had brilliant student pieces which were essentially fan fiction spinning off another author - eg a take on The Tempest from Caliban's viewpoint. But obviously it's essential there is somewhere a note or epigraph that says "after Walcott's Omeros" or whatever the source text is. And that the new take adds something that wasn't there before.

The problem is getting them to understand that critical essays are not subject to the same rules....

[oursin]

And here I was thinking that 'creative collaboration' meant the individuals involved were actually interacting with one another to produce something, and aware that the process was happening.