An Analysis of Michel Foucault's What is an Author? [Paperback]

Michel Foucaults 1969 essay What is an Author? sidesteps the stormy arguments surrounding 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, Foucaults 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.

Ways in to the Text  Who was Michel Foucault?  What does What Is An Author? Say?  Why does What Is An Author? Matter?  Section 1: Influences  Module 1: The Author and the Historical Context  Module 2: Academic Context  Module 3: The Problem  Module 4: The Author's Contribution  Section 2: Ideas  Module 5: Main Ideas  Module 6: Secondary Ideas  Module 7: Achievement  Module 8: Place in the Author's Work  Section 3: Impact  Module 9: The First Responses  Module 10: The Evolving Debate  Module 11: Impact and Influence Today  Module 12: Where Next?  Glossary of Terms  People Mentioned in the Text  Works Cited

Foucault's 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.

Dr Tim Smith-Laing took his DPhil in English litelC—