Presented here are a number of divergent views on the subjects of plagiarism, art and culture. One of the problems inherent in left opposition to dominant culture is that there is no agreement on the use of specific terms. Thus while some of the ‘essays’ contained here are antagonistic towards the concept of art—defined in terms of the culture of the ruling elite—others use the term in a less specific sense and are consequently less critical of it. Since the term ‘art’ is popularly associated with cults of ‘genius’ it would seem expedient to stick to the term ‘culture’—in a non-elitist sense—when describing our own endeavours. Although culture as a category appears to be a ‘universal’ experience, none of its individual expressions meet such a criteria. This is the basis of our principle objection to art—it claims to be ‘universal’ when it is very clearly class based.
Home, Stuart. Plagiarism: Art as Commodity and Strategies for Its Negation. London: Aporia Press, 1987.
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