The author's disappearing act : a critique of contemporary theories of authorship

Abstract

This dissertation aims at providing a critique of theories of authorship as they have emerged in contemporary literary criticism. Over the past decade, controversial views on authorship have emerged. Barthes' assertion that 'the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author' appears to be one of the most controversial statements surrounding the figure of the author. This will be followed by an analysis of Foucault's notion of the 'function' of authorship as this emerges in his essay 'What is an Author?'. The first chapter, therefore aims at providing the literary theory background necessary for expanding on the issue of authorship. Chapter 1 will also be reviewing some of the writings of Derrida that are pertinent to the notion of ecriture. Chapters 2 and 3 will analyse these theories as they have become internalised in contemporary British narrative. These chapters will focus on a detailed analysis of Gilbert Adair's The Death of the Author and Malcolm Bradbury's Doctor Criminale. The author's ambiguous ontological status, the relationship between author and text, and that between text/author and reader move to the foreground of the analysis. These chapters aim to address the following issues: Do we reconstruct the absent author? Can the Reader kill the Author? Most importantly, is the author not dead, after all, but simply performing a disappearing act? The Conclusion of my dissertation will review some of the complexities within which the author is encapsulated as they would have emerged in the previous three chapters. It is hoped that this dissertation will effectively engage its reader with the fascinating but equally controversial concern with authorship of recent theory and fiction.