[PDF] Plagiarama!: William Wells Brown and the Aesthetic of Attractions

In this study of William Wells Brown, the author of the first known novel by an African American and an extensive plagiarist, Geoffrey Sanborn offers a novel reading of Brown’s plagiarism. He argues that the act was a means of capitalizing on the energies of mass-cultural entertainments. Sanborn’s analysis of pastiche and plagiarism adds new depth to the study of nineteenth-century cultural history and African American literature, suggesting modes of African American writing that extend beyond narratives of necessity and purpose.

Offers a novel reading of the abolitionist writer’s plagiarism, arguing the act was a means of capitalizing on the energies of mass-cultural entertainments popularized by showmen such as P. T. Barnum.