ABSTRACT

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book demonstrates that literary collaboration is a phenomenon that calls into question the fundamental definition and purpose of authorship as it broadens our recognition of alternative literary practices and the cultural work they perform. It discusses Somerville and Ross's The Real Charlotte, to fully incorporate how these collaborative relationships reflect how sexual, racial and national identities and relations become articulated through one another. The book outlines how the collaborative endeavors have addressed critique the historical position of "Woman" and reveals the desire or potential to create a new and expanded history for all women. It shows that beyond writer and product, collaboration can indeed function as a promise for partnership and process, it is a "recognition, an admission, of the non-transcendental character of writing—of writing as action and a function of interaction". It can be an arena for engaging one another's differences.