Literary_Forgery_In_18th_Century_-_James_Macpherson

Literary Forgery In 18th Century - James Macpherson 1. INTRODUCTION From the simple looking things up in the dictionary it is quite obvious that all words are only replacements for other words and that the whole language is, in fact, a forgery. The closest we can get to authenticity is plagiarism. Following this belief, it becomes quite clear that it is impossible to open your mouth without quoting. All literary works are therefore made out of recycled bits and pieces of other works. Originality doesn’t exist. Leaving this negative view aside, we can find numerous literary texts wonderful in their originality, some of them being the very basis of human culture. But forgeries are, of course, always present. And while some critics believe that a forgery can be of a great artistic value, others refuse to grant any distinction between the historical authenticity and the literary worth. “If they were not ancient, they had no value as literature.” Although literary fraud is nearly as old as writing itself, it flourishes through the period of the 17th and 18th century. The process can probably be traced to the Renaissance and even earlier, but one especially interesting point is the Age of Sentiment, beginning in the late 18th century. The most impressive poems, macpherson, ossian, macpherson’s, dr, authenticity, scotland, ancient, scottish, century, published, poetry, own, originals, literary, gaelic, after, however, first, fingal, controversy, works, translations, partly, original, johnson, james, himself, great, england, although, years, translated, people, forgery