Authorship in Remix Culture: The Creative Reuse of Found Material in Twenty-First Century Revisits of Popular Plots
Year: 2022
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The dissertation discusses remix authorship conditioned by twentieth-century technological developments, in the context of the closing of the Gutenberg Parenthesis and remix culture. The research is motivated by the notion of a qualitative difference between remix reworkings of prior oeuvres and “original” works grounded in the romantic concept of the genius author and sustained by copyright legislation. The romantic concept of authorship still holds sway over the public mind, even though it has been repeatedly critiqued and problematized in academic circles. To accomplish its objectives, the dissertation describes the concept of authorship before the invention of the printing press, its subsequent evolution to professional authorship, and the idea of the transcending genius invented in response to the debasing of the artist to a petty commodity producer. The first contracts between writers and publishers are discussed (17th c.), as well as the first copyright law (18th c.) and the establishment of the vision of the genius by romantic poets (18th – 19th centuries). Twentieth-century critical theories that destabilise the notion of authorship thus imposed are examined, then attention focuses on the developments leading to the emergence, from music, of remix practices and the creative emancipation they bring, enabled by new technologies.
Authors: Стефанов, Стефан, Stefanov, Stefan
Language: English
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7132463191