Literary Attribution
Definition
The scholarly practice of assigning an anonymous or disputed text to a specific author, typically in a historical context. Differs from forensic attribution in its standards of evidence, its open publication, and its typically non-adversarial setting.
- Goal
- Assign an anonymous or disputed text to an author
- Typical context
- Historical, non-adversarial scholarship
- Contrast
- Different evidentiary standards from forensic attribution
Common questions
How do the evidentiary standards of literary attribution differ from forensic authorship analysis?+
Literary attribution is judged by scholarly consensus built through open peer debate over time, while forensic attribution must meet a court's admissibility threshold and withstand cross-examination on a single occasion.
Why does the non-adversarial setting matter for literary attribution?+
Without an opposing party challenging the method, literary attribution can rely more on cumulative scholarly argument and stylistic judgment than on the standardized, testable procedures forensic casework requires.
Related terms
- Daubert Standard
- The US federal evidentiary standard (Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 1993) requiring that expert testimony be based on scientifically valid methods with...
- Federalist Papers
- A collection of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the pseudonym 'Publius' in 1787-1788, advocating for...
- Mosteller-Wallace Study
- The 1964 statistical analysis by Frederick Mosteller and David Wallace that attributed all twelve disputed Federalist Papers to Madison using function-word frequency...
- Pseudonymous Attribution
- The identification of the real author behind a pen name or anonymous publication. When the attributed author is living and has chosen...