The Dead Group

Question:

barfre
barfre
Student
College - Senior

I just read Anne Pigone's sequel of "The Dead", called "The Ugly". Is it legal what she has done?

Pigone changes the sex of all the characters and moves the story to Boulder, CO!

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Posted by barfre on Monday August 18, 2008 at 3:41 PM and tagged with copyright, derivatives, parodies, the dead.

Answers:


  1. gbeatty Teacher
    College - Freshman

    eNotes Editor

    Yes, what she has done is legal. Writing responses to earlier works is common throughout literature. Indeed, it happens in other arts as well. Painters return to the same sites as greats in the past, or even copy paintings to learn their craft.


    If Joyce's story were still under copyright, and Pigone had published it without Joyce's permission, there might have been legal trouble. However, many authors take up stories where others leave off. It is a kind of homage, and can be called intertextuality. This means that one story plays off another. Sometimes it comments on it, as in a satire, and other times it simply assumes you already know the older text. That's the case with "Wicked," a novel now a musical that reworks "The Wizard of Oz."

    Sources:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intertextuality

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    Posted by gbeatty on Monday August 18, 2008 at 6:31 PM