General comments

Plagiarism

Yes, that again. What I'm interested in is the possibility of innocent plagiarism. This happens when you paraphrase a critic, and don't say that you are doing so. You present that person's ideas as your own, thinking that it's an OK think to do: after all, you've done the research, you've found something out, and here it is.

The thing is: this is never correct, and normally disastrous. It is, in fact, plagiarism. You must always say where you got any ideas that are not your own from, in a footnote. The only exception to this rule is general knowledge: 'Washington DC, a city in America' does not require a footnote to an atlas. But 'Lacan translated Freud into French: it is a very free translation' is not correct: it requires a footnote referencing my lecture, where I say just that. The fact that you are paraphrasing me tells me it is innocent: you are hardly hoping to pass one of my ideas off as your own -- to me. But if you gave that essay to someone else to mark, it would be plagiarism.

Now, given that that kind of thing pops up quite a lot in this bunch of essays, it obviously occurs to me that other critics are similarly being innocently plagiarised, and, because I haven't read everything -- yet -- I haven't spotted it. Only you know if you have done this. If you have, don't. Please don't. The friendly English Department can be unexpectedly unpleasant if it thinks you are doing that on a regular basis, innocent or not.

If in doubt, please read my note on Treatment of Sources.

Author's Intention

Several of you have remarked that Freudian analysis takes no account of the intention of the author in discussing a literary text. Well, of course it doesn't: psychoanalysis deals with unconscious, and therefore unintended, material, by definition.

Moreover: you should be aware that the use of author's intention to somehow guarantee or validate a reading of a literary text is not a concept that is widely subscribed to. The majority of critical theorists think it to be an invalid and even eccentric position. I do myself. Obviously, you must make up your own minds; but you should be aware of the general critical position.

Please get help

This year for the first time we have two members of staff who are prepared to help individual students who have problems with writing essays. See my Please get help note. I strongly recommend that you take up this opportunity if you have any doubts about your ability to write good essays; not just those students for whom I have checked the 'get help' box. Take along the essay with my comments, and see what they say. It could help...