Jules Jones

Conversation with the genre -- plagiarism, allusion, and intertextuality


An extensive discussion about plagiarism has been going on in some of the romance blogs over the last few weeks. One thread in the discussion has been about the difference between allusion and plagiarism. Why is one acceptable and the other not, and what is the difference between them? After all, both involve the use of someone else's work, even to the extent of word-for-word copying.

For me, the difference between the two is very simple in theory, even if in practice it's not always possible for a reader to be certain what an author had in mind. If your intent as an author is that your audience should recognise the work you're quoting, or at the very least realise that it's intended as a reference to someone else's work, you're making an allusion. If you are hoping that they won't notice that it's not your own words, that's plagiarism. For this is the key part of what plagiarism is -- that you are taking the credit for work that was in fact done by someone else.
( detailed discussion, with examples )
Perhaps the simplest test of all, if you're a writer wondering whether what you want to do is on the wrong side of the line: ask yourself how you would feel about someone doing to your work what you're proposing to do to someone else's. And be honest with your answer.


My thanks to the people who looked over the draft of this post and made helpful comments.