Theories of authorship and material culture provide the framework for this study. It maps Anglo-American authorship as it shifts from a theoretical to a more material approach to its study in contexts recognized as key to its development: the nineteenth-century literary market-place, twentieth-century experimentalism and postmodern culture.

Collection of original essays by distinguished scholars (including Terry Eagleton, David Punter, Michael Bell and Victor Sage)First collection to address the links between 'authorship' and literary criticismTimely - authorship is the focus of interest within print culture and the history of the book studiesArgues that the contemporary fascination with print culture is symptomatic of an uneasy relationship with recent critical theories - provides a basis for students and lecturers from which to discuss notions of authorshipIncludes an extended bibliography of major studies and recent books on authorship and material culture

Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction: Authorship and its Contexts; K.Hadjiafxendi & P.Mackay PART I: NINETEENTH-CENTURY LITERARY MARKET-PLACE The Author, the Editor and the Fissured Text: Scott, Maturin and Hogg; V.Sage 'George Eliot', the Literary Market-Place and Sympathy; K.Hadjiafxendi Liberal Editing in the Fortnightly Review and the Nineteenth Century; H.Small PART II: TWENTIETH -CENTURY MYTHOLOGIES OF AUTHORSHIP F.R. Leavis: The Writer, Language, History; M.Bell Mind that Crowd: Flann O'Brien's Authors; J.Brooker Authorship in the Writings and Films of William S. Burroughs; P.Mackay PART III: POSTMODERN CULTURE Postmodernism, Criticism and the Graphic Novel; D.Punter Authorial Identity in the Era of Electronic Technologies; T.Rapatzikou Towards a Politics of the Small Things: Arundhati Roy and the Decentralization of Authorship; M.Alexandru PART IV: AUTHORSHIP AND CRITICISM - The Decline of the Critic; T.Eagleton Further Reading Index