China again?
Pennycook cites Kearney's three paradigms of imagination, linking the mimetic with China's view of authorship. We know the mimetic, or divine inspiration, is a busted romantic ideal. The western alternative, somewhere between the productive and parodic may be problematic, but at least we know writers aren't struck with thunderbolts when they create. We know the old view isn't the way writers write. Why, then, do we not bust China's view? We can all agree that denying women the right to vote is wrong, right?* We can universally get behind that as a basic human right, right? Where is the line drawn between culture ("We shouldn't judge them using our values, that's just the way they are") versus the continuing push toward modernization/globalization ("We are going to force these countries to abandon slavery and get with the program whether they want to or not")?
Plagiarism isn't slavery and it isn't oppression, but if the academy is going to function the way it needs to, everyone has to get with the program. Minor citation issues are one thing and are easily correctable, but the wholesale reproduction of a text (or patchwork reproduction) is something none of us should tolerate.
We're inextricably linked with the writing of our past. China's view of plagiarism derives from Confucian values (Bloch). The West's view of leniency toward plagiarism derives from Christian notions of forgiveness and absolution.
Depending on how the conversation goes tomorrow, I might just scribble out Pennycook's name and write my own - then hand that in as my course paper.
*That sentence is my ten (ki-shoo-ten-ketsu). Take that, Kaplan.
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"Minor citation issues are one thing and are easily correctable, but the wholesale reproduction of a text (or patchwork reproduction) is something none of us should tolerate"--YES!
ReplyDelete"I might just scribble out Pennycook's name and write my own - then hand that in as my course paper."-- Hmm...I'll accept that only if you will only be "borrowing" Pennycook's textual;) production...
I believe the issue of plagiarism comes from the individualistic view that we need to own this knowledge. Who published first will get credited, while followers need to cite that work. As for China, the idea of individualism does not exist because of the communism view that everything belongs to everyone. Sharing does not consider as a crime. That might justify your first "China again?" a bit.
ReplyDeleteThe "China again?" part was in reference to how each week's issues keep using Chinese culture as their example. Bloch says that this causes people to think of China as the opposite of Western culture, which isn't the case. Still, the issues we've addressed in class keep coming back to the dragon.
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