Authorship: The Development and Legitimation of a Literary Profession
The chapter begins with the historical context of professional authorship, highlighting the impact of copyright on an author’s ability to earn money and control their literary property. The narrative moves to explore the practice of frequenting gentlemen’s clubs to do business as authors used clubs to socialise with their professional network and find new opportunities. The chapter then addresses one of the defining features of Victorian publishing, serialisation—discussing how the format of journalism underpinned authorship in particular demonstrating how Charles Dickens used serialisation to reach a wide readership. The chapter closes with a study of the practices used by women such as publishing under male pseudonyms or anonymously. Through an analysis of letters written by Charlotte Bronte in relation to the publication of Jane Eyre, this chapter demonstrates how women circumvented gender stereotypes to get published.
Students at the University of Ottawa, many of whom were targeting a career in medicine, were surveyed to determine their attitudes and expectations regarding a new student-run peer-reviewed journal for the health sciences. A number of students reported that the existence of the journal would make them more likely to take a class with a written component, while a majority would work harder on that assignment. Those intending to pursue postgraduate or professional studies were most likely to recognize the value to their careers of having a publication history. We argue that student-run medical communication endeavors such as this are beneficial both for enhancing student careers and for contributing to a more thorough educational experience.