University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2011 Novel Properties: Communication, Copyright, and the British Novel, 1710-1774 Scott Enderle University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Epistemology Commons, Intellectual Property Law Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Other Communication Commons, Publishing Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Enderle, Scott, "Novel Properties: Communication, Copyright, and the British Novel, 1710-1774" (2011). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1530. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1530 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1530 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Novel Properties: Communication, Copyright, and the British Novel, 1710-1774 Abstract Literary investigations of copyright have generally taken a retrospective view of British eighteenth-century copyright law. Influenced by the assumptions and methods of historical materialism, and aiming to critique romantic notions of authorship, such projects have sought in the eighteenth century a narrative of the 'rise of the romantic author.' Though productive, this approach has sometimes obscured other influential strains of thought about authorship, interpretation, and literary property that were widespread in the eighteenth century. This dissertation seeks to shift focus away from the historical materialist critique of romantic authorship--part of a debate that has its roots in the nineteenth century--and towards a related but characteristically eighteenth-century debate between innatism and empiricism. Roughly speaking, this debate was over whether 'ideas' (however defined) are innate, present in the human mind from birth, or are acquired exclusively through experience. Discussions of literary property in the eighteenth century concerned themselves with this debate precisely in so far as literature may be said to involve the production, transmission, or consumption of ideas. To reexamine the rise of copyright law in Britain within the frame of this debate, this dissertation examines court records and other legal documents that discussed copyright law and the related notion of a property in ideas; philosophical tracts that attempted to define the term 'idea' and explain the origin of ideas; and literary works that problematized the production, transmission, consumption, and interpretation of literary ideas. Read alongside one another, these texts reveal a proliferation of models through which to understand the novel concept of literary property. To explore the question of whether the ideas in a text could be communicated without being made common, these texts drew on a wide range of metaphors--political sovereignty, land ownership, marriage, mathematical proof, and sentimental exchange--to serve as models of communication. Each of these models had different implications for the concept of literary property, and many of them were compatible with literary property, while remaining incompatible with romantic notions of authorship. The association between copyright and romantic authorship, then, is not necessary but contingent, subject to transformation by the accidents of history. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group English First Advisor Michael Gamer Keywords novel, empiricism, eighteenth century, communication, British, copyright, innatism Subject Categories Epistemology | Intellectual Property Law | Literature in English, British Isles | Other Communication | Publishing | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1530 NOVEL PROPERTIES: COMMUNICATION, COPYRIGHT AND THE BRITISH NOVEL, 1710-1774 Scott Enderle A DISSERTATION in English Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2011 ichael Gamer, Associate Professor, English ate Grour rpersorr '<J?tt Paul Saint-Amour, Associate Professor, English Dissertation Committee Toni Bowers, Professor, English Paul Saint-Amour, Associate Professor, English 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Acknowledging one's debts is generally recognized as a Sisyphean task— infinite, but also pleasurable, and so infinitely pleasurable. My first thanks go to Michael Gamer, Toni Bowers, and Paul Saint-Amour, each an inexhaustible fountain of insight and encouragement, without whose efforts this dissertation would not exist. Thanks also to Simon Stern and Daniel Carey for their perspicacious commentary on early drafts, and to John Richetti, Stuart Curran, and Chi-Ming Yang for helping me through the early stages of my research. As I wrote, I took inspiration from discussions with Peter Stallybrass, Roger Chartier, Dan Traister, John Pollack, and Lynn Farrington, as well as with all the participants in the History of Material Texts Seminar at Penn. Sara Varney and Jennifer Conway of the Penn Humanities Forum provided much- needed support during my year there, and this dissertation was influenced by conversations with fellow forum participants Jim English, Devin Griffiths, Deven M. Patel, Caitlin Barrett, and Saul Rosenthal, as well as with Dave Alff, Melanie Micir, Phil Maciak, Jos Lavery, Christen Mucher, all the other Graduate Humanities Forum Fellows, and our inestimable advisor Warren Breckman. Thanks also to Anna Foy, Suzanne Barnett, Kate Gustafson, Alyssa Connell, and to everyone else who kept the Eighteenth-Century Reading Group going. But my deepest gratitude goes to my friends and family. Mearah Quinn-Brauner, Rosemary O'Neill, Alec Wood, Marcos Huerta, and Cary Beckwith kept up my spirits. Gabe Teague was a dear companion, even on the other side of the continent. Andrew, Loxley, Marden, and Alex Nichols welcomed me and made me feel at home. My sister. Laura Enderle, reminded me how to laugh, and my parents, Wayne and Cathy Enderle, reminded me how to stay calm. And Rachael Nichols—you illuminated both my brightest and my darkest hours. Thank you. ill ABSTRACT NOVEL PROPERTIES: COMMUNICATION. COPYRIGHT, AND THE BRITISH NOVEL, 1710-1774 Scott Enderle Michael Gamer Literary investigations of copyright have generally taken a retrospective view of British eighteenth-century copyright law. Influenced by the assumptions and methods of historical materialism, and aiming to critique romantic notions of authorship, such projects have sought in the eighteenth century a narrative of the 'rise of the romantic author.' Though productive, this approach has sometimes obscured other influential strains of thought about authorship, interpretation, and literary property that were widespread in the eighteenth century. This dissertation seeks to shift focus away from the historical materialist critique of romantic authorship)—part of a debate that has its roots in the nineteenth century—and towards a related but characteristically eighteenth- century debate between innatism and empiricism. Roughly speaking, this debate was over whether 'ideas" (however defined) are innate, present in the human mind from birth, or are acquired exclusively through experience. Discussions of literary property in the eighteenth century concerned themselves with this debate precisely in so far as literature may be said to involve the production, transmission, or consumption of ideas. iv To reexamine the rise of copyright law in Britain within the frame of this debate, this dissertation examines court records and other legal documents that discussed copyright law and the related notion of a property in ideas; philosophical tracts that attempted to define the term 'idea' and explain the origin of ideas; and literary works that problematized the production, transmission, consumption, and interpretation of literary ideas. Read alongside one another, these texts reveal a proliferation of models through which to understand the novel concept of literary property. To explore the question of whether the ideas in a text could be communicated without being made common, these texts drew on a wide range of metaphors—poltical sovereignty, land ownership, marriage, mathematical proof, and sentimental exchange—to serve as models of communication. Each of these models had different implications for the concept of literary property, and many of them were compatible with literary property, while remaining incompatible with romantic notions of authorship. The association between copyright and romantic authorship, then, is not necessary but contingent, subject to transformation by the accidents of history. V TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Copia and Copyright ...... 1 Chapter One Innateness and Experience in the Eighteenth-Century Copyright Debates; or, What Is Reading? 19 Chapter Two The Vacuous Sovereign in Fielding and Hobbes . 64 Chapter Three The Matter of Property in Clarissa .... 97 Chapter Four Tristram Shandy and the Death of the Patron . 139 1 Introduction: Copia and Copyright The word 'copy' comes from the Latin copia. 'Cornucopia' and 'copious' are derived form the same root, which means 'abundance.' The term was applied to texts in the classical Latin phrases habere copiam legendi and facere copiam describendi, meaning "to have the ability to read" and "to give the power to transcribe,"1 and was used by Cicero and