On Kathy Acker’s “Playgiarism”: A Case Study of Her Great Expectations

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2024.02.013

Abstract

Abstract:

Kathy Acker is best known for playgiarism. A neologism by Raymond Federman to describe the narrative strategies of metafiction, the term means plagiarism + play. Acker is so fond of using playgiarism that, even after she passed away, people feel they owe her “a plagiarized tribute”. This article is intended to analyze the four patterns of playgiarism demonstrated in her Great Expectations, namely, the play of plagiarism, the mixture of genres, the fragmentation of intertexts, and the voice in the “voiceless”. The ultimate purpose of playgiarism for Acker is to make louder the literary cry for the voice of feminism.

Key words: playgiarism, Great Expectations, mixture of genres, fragmentation, voice

CLC Number:

I110

SU Kun. On Kathy Acker’s “Playgiarism”: A Case Study of Her Great Expectations[J]. Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies, 2024, 24(2): 142-152.

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