Alternative avatars of the plagiarist, or, an embarrassment of glitches

Abstract

What is the relation between plagiarism and embarrassment? What unspoken rules dictate our responses to improper literary behaviour? Addressing these questions against the backdrop of South African author Willem Anker’s substantial ‘borrowings’ from Samuel Beckett, this article proposes three alternative avatars – the catfish, hacker, and emperor – to displace Martial’s archetypal plagiarius or enslaver. The catfish is an impostor, an appropriator and aggregator of identities who aims to seduce. The hacker is a digital bandit whose daring encroachments are as much admired as feared. And the emperor is that cipher either clothed by common consent or stripped at the cost of our own exposure. Whatever their vices, these figures have the virtue of nudging discussion of plagiarism away from rights and ownership towards identity, trust and exposure. Where the enslaver tends to ringfence the wronged and the wrong-doer, the alternative avatars open towards the reader. They ask us to consider our role in constituting, condoning or condemning acts of literary deceit, to mark the connections between our moral judgements and our affective responses, and, ultimately, to reflect on our position as hypocrites lecteurs when confronted with plagiarism.