The object of this study is literary plagiarism in Spanish Literatures, from a historical, theoretical and practical approach. From a historical point of view, plagiarism perception and representation have encountered important evolutions. How-ever, they have preserved common elements. A plagiarist is an Řuntruthful authorř, but to this basic notion other materials have been attached from a number of epistemological and disciplinary perspectives. Considered first as a mere moral or legal infringement and subsequently assimilated to a certain concept of intertextuality, recent studies make use of prag-matic approaches to intend an explanation of the ambiguous and polemic nature of the subject. This thesis studies the phenomenon from a multidisciplinary approach, gaining with the contributions collected from Law, Comparative Litera-ture, History or the different national literatures, though maintaining its focus on Spanish Literatures. The study is divided in three parts. The first one deals with the emergence, instauration and evolution of the concept until approxi-mately the end of the XVIIth century. Secondly, different theories are reviewed in relation with the particular disciplinary approaches adopted. Finally, practical applications of plagiarism are considered: normative, strategic, ideological or artis-tic uses. Plagiarism as an artistic device is present in a number of movements and trends in different periods, especially associated to Avant-garde and Postmodernism. This study offers a general view of the subject and both a theoretical and a literary corpus, until presently scattered in monographic works, in order to propose some possible research guidelines on plagiarism in the realm of the Spanish Literatures.
