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and the series; factors which undermine, ifnot erode completely, authors' individuality
and creativity as well as their 'authority' over their work.
The construction-kit type wntmg IS, however, also reminiscent of many of the
collaborative add-on stories discussed later in this chapter as well as the mechanistic
approach to authorship by such groups as OuLiPo or the "automatic writing" of the
Surrealists, and is used byallof these groups not in a framework ofcommodification, but
against it with the aim ofdemystifying writing and subverting especially the idea of the
selected.creative literary genius, which will be discussed further in the next chapter.
4.2.4: The Myth ofthe Solitary Genius
The notion of the author has come under attack from various positions. One can find a
deconstruction ofthe term on a theoretical level, mirrored by the experimental play with
author-figures/authority and collaboration in, amongst others, writings by the groups
mentioned above and other postmodern forms of writing, but there are also a number of
critical studies which approach the notion ofsingular authorship on a more practical level
by studying actual collaborations in the writing and publishing processes.
In his study Multiple Authorshipsand the Myth ofthe Solitary Genius, Jack Stillinger sets out
to dispel the myth of a "unified mind, personality or consciousness in or behind a text"
and wants to replace the, what he regards as Romantic, myth of solitaty authorship with
"a more realistic account of the ways in which literature is created">. In his collection of
essays, he examines a range of unusual and unexpected collaborations: the manner in
which Keats's poetry was revised and polished by his friends and editors, how Coleridge
used German philosophical sources without any reference to them to construct his own
philosophy, how Pound's influence and revisions considerably shaped Eliot's Waste
Land, and howJohn Stuart Mill's wife tried to edit his autobiography to create a less self­
critical and more likable image of the author. Stillinger not only looks at literature, even
though most of his examples are taken from that realm, but also at playwrights and
screenwriters, where collaboration in the production/staging process in theatres and
cinemas is inevitably a collaboration ofmany voices. Though it could be argued that his
32 Stillinger, Multiple Authorship, P.I83.
Chapter 4 - page 14C