Plagiarism and ideology: Identity in intercultural discourse

ABSTRACT The concept of plagiarism, as used both in considerations of academic writing and in international negotiations over intellectual copyright, assumes a model of communication based on autonomous, rational, individuals who behave as originators of their own discourses. But studies of communication, beginning with Goffman's concepts of production format and footing – and also including the concepts of enactment, social role, face, politeness pragmatics, metaphors of self and communication, and innatist/social concepts of knowledge – indicate that such a unified, autonomous, and original communicative identity presupposes an oversimplified model of communication, centrally based in the ideology of the rational, autonomous individual which has been dominant in Europe since the Enlightenment. The concept of plagiarism masks the assertion of this ideological position. (Plagiarism, ideology, identity, intercultural discourse)