Page 136 - Student: dazed And Confused

put what she thought to be their lives. Like Joyce though, her own self flavoured the work.
We know that she did not live in France until she visited a health spa in 1918 to overcome

pleurisy, and was delving into a deep depression before that. As such, it impossible to
remove her own influence over the stories she writes, as they often tell of an observer of life

experiencing the simple pleasures whilst always being tinged with harder reality. This, like
Joyce recharacterises himself in the Dubliners collection, could either be her way of

discussing her own life or giving a voice to the people. Not yet an old woman when she died,

Mansfield travelled a lot and had a somewhat turbulent life but do we, as readers, own the
story she wrote to escape from it? A crude answer would be to say that she published it for a

reason - and why hand it over to the public if it is not ours?
We have seen that it is nigh on impossible to completely remove ownership from

either the writer or reader and, similarly, we can pin ownership to neither. In the above cases

at any rate. Just as the reader must ‘trust’ and ‘submit to the experiment’ (J Winterson, 2006)
it is possible for writers, readers and other influences to do just that and go along for the ride.

For does not the enjoyment of producing and consuming a work comprise the ownership?
That personal touch - that word or thought - stamps the mark of ownership over it. But

whilst everyone can morally own part of a piece of literature, legally speaking

‘Copyright ownership of a literary work consists of a

bundle of rights which an author, at least theoretically,
may assign to the publisher in any manner they choose.

Thus, an author may assign all or only a part of his/her
rights to one or more publishers while retaining particular

rights for himself/herself. ‘
(publaw.com)

It is easy to read or write something we enjoyed or are proud of and say ‘it’s mine’.
But credit has not been given to the people who may have played a part in the creation.

Neither has an official copyright been established between author and publisher, meaning that
for a time, the work is open to the public for anyone to claim as their own. As with anything,

memorably witnessed by the recent split in rights of a music franchise, the claim to rights

often ultimately lies with the highest bidder - film rights, e-books, audio books. Which
brings us nicely back to the argument that everyone can stake their claim on a work.

Ownership of certain rights does not mean own ownership of the entire work, it is simply of