Re: theoretically speaking

Matt and Jim,

Actually, I think the ideas in Barthes' "From Work to Text" might speak more
directly to the discussion you are beginning concerning the author in a
post-structuralist context. The "Death of the Author" essay still has
specific structuralist assumptions that ground it and that make it, I
believe, part of a previous philosophical moment. On the other hand,
Foucault's "What is an Author?" would compliment your questions in
interesting ways, though it should be read, I think, alongside Derrida's
formulation of the notion of "signature" as the marked trace of the author
that inevitably remains (in, say, "Signature, Event, Context" or "Spurs" to
begin with, and any number of other specific places as well). Needless, to
say, *Glas* speaks at some length about the uniqueness and importance of the
author and his signature, especially those of Hegel on the one hand and Genet
on the other. But you already knew that.

In neither Foucault's case nor in Derrida's is the author anything like
"dead."

All the best,

--John

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Received on Wed Mar 5 16:54:13 2003