Plagiarism Checking in the Literary Scene as an Enigmatic Procedure

Abstract

Discussions about plagiarism are becoming more frequent, but never lead to a concrete conclusion. The accusation of plagiarism by the author Helene Hegemann and her debut novel Axolotl Roadkill (2010) against Airen’s Strobo (2010), for example, has so far been disputed in both academic and popular areas. The question is therefore asked why readers’ assessments can differ significantly from one another, even though they perceive the same phenomenon. The present work therefore does not aim to answer which indicator is used to recognize plagiarism, but rather to approach the phenomenon of plagiarism with regard to the selected case study. In order to answer the question, the phenomenon, recipients, the literary scene and the author’s intention are examined using relevant literary studies, such as intertextuality according to Kristeva and collaged literature according to Bannasch, and psychological studies, such as the Theory of Planned Behavior according to Ajzen, as well as theories and concepts on the textual, receptionist and authorial level. The results show on the textual level that the text has the potential to be collaged literature, and on the receptionist level that plagiarism checking in the literary scene is an enigma because plagiarism can never be viewed by recipients as a unified, objective state. When the author’s intention is examined on the authorial level, the conclusion is that plagiarism arises from overlooking the moral boundary, underestimating the recipient’s knowledge and exploiting the ambiguity in the law.