A continuator, in

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

, is a writer who creates a new work based on someone else's prior text, such as a

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

or novel fragment. The new work may complete the older work (as with the numerous continuations of

Jane Austen Jane Austen ( ; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for #List of works, her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century ...

's unfinished novel '' Sanditon''), or may try to serve as a

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music, or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

or prequel to the older work (such as Alexandra Ripley's '' Scarlett'', an authorized continuation of

Margaret Mitchell Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel that was published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel ''Gone With the Wind (novel), Gone ...

's '' Gone with the Wind''). This phenomenon differs from those authors who, because they share a common culture, use characters or themes from a common cultural stock.

History

The development of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an classical literature out of the common stock of oral tradition proved conducive to reworkings, revisions, and

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

s. Numerous writers of

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

's golden age revived and reworked stories of the

Trojan War The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans (Ancient Greece, Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris (mytho ...

and

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, although they were not strictly continuators as, for the most part, they did not invent or even extrapolate much from the received stories, choosing to alter the tone and treatment rather than the stories.

Latin literature Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literatur ...

, on the other hand, may be regarded as systematic continuators of Greek models. The pinnacle of Augustan literature, the ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...

'', is essentially a continuation of the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

'': not only in that it follows a minor character from his imagined origins in

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

to his founding of

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, but in that it continues a historical ethos. This move, by connecting the Roman empire both culturally and pseudo-historically to the Homeric myth, is commonly viewed as a move by

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

to legitimize the Roman empire. For instance, the epic opens with a summary of the progress of Aeneas and his progeny (in

John Dryden John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration (En ...

's translation): :Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc'd by fate, :And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate, :Expel'd and exil'd, left the Trojan shore. :Long labors, both by sea and land, he bore, :And in the doubtful war, before he won :The Latian realm, and built the destin'd town; :His banish'd gods restor'd to rites divine, :And settled sure succession in his line, :From whence the race of Alban fathers come, :And the long glories of majestic Rome. W. A. Camps expresses this common analysis of Virgil when he writes, "There is more than one reminder in the poem that its hero Aeneas is ancestor of Octavian through the supposed descent of the Julii .e., Octavian's familythrough Aeneas' son Julius." Like their medieval predecessors,

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

authors drew inspiration from earlier writers. More significantly, the spread of printing, slow increase in literacy, and the development of capitalism conspired to shape a modern concept of text and authorship. In this context, one sees "continuators" in the modern sense: authors either inspired or hired to complete or continue a predecessor's concept. This habit was most noticeable in the most commercialized spheres of literature. Elizabethan drama, for example, is full of examples. As an instance of completion, Francis Godolphin Waldron completed '' The Sad Shepherd'', a late unfinished play by

Ben Jonson Benjamin Jonson ( 11 June 1572 – ) was an English playwright, poet and actor. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence on English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for the satire, satirical ...

. As an instance of sequel-writing, John Fletcher's ''The Tamer Tamed'' continues and lampoons Shakespeare's '' The Taming of the Shrew''. Controversial literature was amenable to such continuations, as evidenced most especially by the Martin Marprelate affair;

Philip Sidney Sir Philip Sidney (30 November 1554 – 17 October 1586) was an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan era, Elizabethan age. His works include a sonnet sequence, ' ...

's '' Arcadia'' was continued by Anna Weamys.

Notes

#{{note, 1Camps, W. A. ''An Introduction to Virgil's Aeneid'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969, 1–2.

Sources

*Boitani, Piero (1989). ''The European Tragedy of Troilus''. Oxford: Clarendon Press. *Boyle, A. J., ed (1988). ''The Imperial Muse: Ramus Essays on Roman literature of the Empire to Juvenal through Ovid''. Berwick, Australia: Aureal Publications. *Braunmuller, A. R. (1990) "The Arts of the Dramatist." ''Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Drama''. A.R. Braunmuller and Daniel Hattaway, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 53–92. *Cairns, Francis (1989). ''Virgil's Augustan Epic''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Chambers, E. K. (1923). ''The Elizabethan Stage''. 4 vol. Oxford: Clarendon Press. *Clark, Sandra (1994). ''The Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher: Sexual Themes and Dramatic Representation''. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf. *Greg, W. W. (1905). ''Ben Jonson's The Sad Shepherd, with Francis Waldron's Continuation''. Materialien zur Kunde des älteren englischen dramasche. Louvain: A. Uystpruyst. *Knutson, Roslyn (2001). ''Playing Companies and Commerce in Shakespeare's Time''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Smith, Alden (1997). ''Poetic Allusion and Poetic Embrace in Ovid and Vergil''. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press. *Weamys, Anna (1994). ''A Continuation of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia''. *Patrick Cullen Colborn, ed. Women Writers in English, 1350–1850. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Fan fiction Narrative forms pt:Continuador

History

See also

Notes

Sources