An Analysis of Michel Foucault's What is an Author? (The Macat Library)

Michel Foucault's 1969 essay "What is an Author?" sidesteps the stormy arguments surrounding the "intentional fallacy" and the "death of the author", offering an entirely different way of looking at texts. Foucault points out that all texts are written but not all are discussed as having "authors". So what is special about "authored" texts? And what makes an "author" different to other kinds of text-producers? From its deceptively simple titular question, Foucault's essay offers a complex argument for viewing authors and their texts as objects. A challenging, thought-provoking piece, it is one of the most influential literary essays of the twentieth century. "A central theme of Michel Foucaults work as a philosopher and historian is the quest to see through the surface of society and understand the processes going on beneath it. Across a long career that saw him become perhaps the most influential philosopher of the mid-late twentieth century, he applied his efforts to analyzing a range of phenomena and their relationship to power and the individual in societyranging from the history of mental illness and its classification, to the history of crime and punishment, through to the history of human sexuality. His 1969 essay What is an Author? applies the same approach to the central figure of literary criticism: the author, asking, against the grain of our intuitions, whether an "author" is truly the real individual who writes a text, or something else."--Provided by publisher A central theme of Michel Foucault's work as a philosopher and historian is the quest to see through the surface of society and understand the processes going on beneath it. Across a long career that saw him become perhaps the most influential philosopher of the mid-late twentieth century, he applied his efforts to analyzing a range of phenomena and their relationship to power and the individual in society - ranging from the history of mental illness and its classification, to the history of crime and punishment, through to the history of human sexuality. His 1969 essay 'What is an Author?' applies the same approach to the central figure of literary criticism: the author, asking, against the grain of our intuitions, whether an 'author' is truly the real individual who writes a text, or something else Cover 1 Title Page 2 Copyright Page 3 Table of Contents 4 Ways in to the Text 10 Who was Michel Foucault? 10 What Does “What is an Author?” Say? 11 Why Does “What is an Author?” Matter? 13 Section 1: Influences 15 Module 1: The Author and the Historical Context 16 Module 2: Academic Context 21 Module 3: The Problem 26 Module 4: The Author’s Contribution 31 Section 2: Ideas 35 Module 5: Main Ideas 36 Module 6: Secondary Ideas 41 Module 7: Achievement 46 Module 8: Place in the Author’s Work 50 Section 3: Impact 55 Module 9: The First Responses 56 Module 10: The Evolving Debate 60 Module 11: Impact and Influence Today 65 Module 12: Where Next? 70 Glossary of Terms 75 People Mentioned in the Text 83 Works Cited 91 The Macat Library By Discipline 95