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Contemporary writers are advised to be on the lookout for plagiarism. In Britain, the roll-call of those scorched by its toxic flame in recent years includes JK Rowling, Andrew Motion, Ian Mc¬Ewan, Graham Swift, PD James – and the scriptwriters of The Archers, who were accused, improbably, of pinching a plot point from Günter Grass; a description of a character's escape from Nazi pursuers in the second world war, by hiding under a peasant woman's skirts as she laboured in the fields, was a direct lift from The Tin Drum. A BBC spokesman said it was not "plagiarism" but rather an homage, a traditional defence when under attack.
When someone has a hit in the world of books, less fortunate authors often cry foul. When Yann Martel won the Booker prize with Life of Pi, his success unleashed the worm of prize-envy. But the accusations of plagiarism did not stick; he had already acknowledged that the plot of his novel was inspired by ¬Brazilian writer Moacyr Scliar.
Amid the cornucopia of Hogwarts, Rowling has been dogged for years by the children's writer Ursula Le Guin's pointed regret that the author of the Harry Potter books was not "more gracious about her predecessors". Le Guin said: "She has many virtues, but originality isn't one of them." Possibly more damaging has been the revelation that the 1986 horror film Troll contains a character named Harry Potter.
In these murky waters, perhaps there's a distinction to be drawn between plots and phrasing. It has often been observed that there is an extremely limited number of basic plots available to the novelist or playwright. Some say 10, some seven, others as few as five. In this constricted imaginative environment, the likelihood of unconscious repetition is going to be extremely high.
What's not in doubt is that, even when a writer believes themself to be writing with originality, he or she is often simply exploring an archetypal story. Jungians make much of this. So perhaps in -judging the sin of plagiarism, there's a distinction to be drawn between copying individual sentences or phrases (obviously wrong) and reinterpreting age-old stories (more understandable).
The Walt Disney Company might not agree. It has somehow contrived to develop a catalogue of animated fairy tales (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Robin Hood) whose exploitation its corporate lobbyists watch over like Fort Knox (forbidding artist Dennis Oppenheim, for instance, from using Disney characters in his sculpture).