“Romantic Fragmentation and Victorian Censorship: Rethinking Nineteenth-Century Authorship.” GRAMMA: Journal of Theory and Criticism 21 (2013), “Τhe History and Future of the19th-Century Book,” eds. Maria Schoina and Andrew Stauffer: 131-144. (original) (raw)

This essay examines how and to what extent the growth and professionalization of the publishing industry during the nineteenth century created inconsistencies between the text that was originally produced by an author, and the text that eventually appeared as a published book. Drawing on contemporary literary theory’s conflicting views on the status and significance of the author, it attempts a reconciliatory approach that views the author and the literary text as social entities that interact with the reader. On this ground, examples drawn from the publishing industry’s interference with Romantic fragments on the one hand, and Victorian censored texts on the other are examined, in order to highlight, first of all, the ways in which the publishing industry has shaped the nineteenth-century author and his/ her work; subsequently, this analysis helps explore the implications that the mediation of the publishing industry has for the consumption of nineteenth-century literature nowadays.