William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in English. His writings are required reading in both literature and drama classes. We have the idea Shakespeare was an author, toiling away by himself to produce his masterworks, but was he really?
"[T]he notion of author is a relatively recent formation, and, as a cultural formation, it is inseparable form the commodification of literature. The distinguishing characteristic of the modern author, I propose, is proprietorship; the author is conceived as the originator and therefore the owner of a special kind of commodity, the work."
Given this definition of author, Shakespeare does not mainly qualify, as we will explore in this blog through examining his role in how his works were published.
Work Cited: Rose, Mark (1993). Authors and Owners: The Invention of Copyright. Harvard University Press. Preview Available: http://books.google.com/books?id=HMB4hdF4l
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