HANDOUT ON FOUCAULT, "WHAT IS AN AUTHOR?" (1969)
Assignment for next time
Michel Foucault, "What is an Author," Foucault Reader: 101-20.
Michel Foucault, "Truth and Power," Foucault Reader: 51-75.
Study questions for "What is an Author?"
1. At various times, Foucault distinguishes between "the author" and the "writer" or "writing subject." At the top of page 108, for example, he says that an anonymous text posted on a wall has a writer, but probably not an author. Does that make any sense?
2. After a while, Foucault stops talking about the author and starts talking about the "author function." What exactly is the "author function"? What kinds of writings are said to "contain" it? Does Foucault seem to feel that it's existed since the dawn of time, or does he think that it emerged at a particular point in time?
3. Would those of you in other fields, especially music and art, like to say something about the workings of the "author function" in your fields? Could we find some kind of analogous "composer" or "painter" or "photographer" function?
4. Why does Foucault devote so much time to "founders of discursivity"? Is there any connection between Foucault's ideas about "founders of discursivity" and his concept of the "author function"?
What next?