What we need is a dissertation about plagiarized dissertations.
The controversy around German defense minister Guttenberg's plagiarized dissertation roars along, at least in academic circles. By renouncing the Dr. title, Guttenberg hoped to be one step ahead of the University of Bayreuth which after a few days review rescinded the same title. Now the debate circles around questions of whether Guttenberg was legally capable of renouncing his title. Once a doctor, always a doctor. Having received the title, it was not his to abandon, rather only the university could strip it from him, and even there the debate grows a new branch: on what legal basis can the university do so.
Then there are those who want the state prosecutor to move against Guttenberg for having committed fraud with his cut and paste job.
You know what's coming soon: a dissertation or five about the plagiarized dissertation. What better revenge than an analysis of the media event that is forgery? There has got to be a Kittler student out there ready to prove he's more cynical than the rest--ready to explain how plagiarism is the Ur-form of the Republic of Letters. Guttenberg as the contemporary re-animation of the Baroque scholar collating and translating other works. Before you know it, someone will allude to Faust and then Guttenberg will suddenly become an academic folk hero as opposed to just being the folk hero he seems to be in some corners.
The research work has already begun, and nevermind what was written here not a few days ago about how easy it was to uncover Guttenberg's deception--there are some seriously detailed and well-footnoted, or hypertexted, web pages out there tracking down ever twist in the downward spiral of Guttenberg's academic career.
Over at bluthilde, a lot of work has gone into collecting the fakery:
http://bluthilde.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/grundlagen-wissenschaftlichen-ziterens/
The real question is what will become of German politics if Guttenberg manages to shove this forgery aside and carry on as if all that mattered was the fact that he was well-loved, admired and celebrated by many. "It doesn't matter, I am popular."
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