Foucault What Is An Author Analysis

In Foucault’s “What is an Author” Foucault viciously attacks the the concept of who or what an author is or what it describes. He writes of the term author as if it were an insult to himself, constantly breaking the idea of an author down into its most basic meanings of what an author is to him; this is critical since the term author can be defined in so many different meaningful ways.
Foucault is creating a piece out of his own feelings toward this subject of what is an author. you are to take anything from this passages many different, complex articulations of the meaning of an author i would take it that, to foucault, an author is suicidal and that he will drain himself into his work. Foucault, perhaps unknowingly, referenced more than only …show more content…
Foucault describes the significance of an author's name. He illustrates the use of an author's name on the feelings produced by the reader. Foucault determined that the author's name can be used to develop their own character or produce a false backstory for themselves to create an emotion in the reader to create incentive for them to pursue the book or work of the author. This only continues to prove that authors will not only use others work and ideas but there names as well. Authors names can be disclosed as well to focus the reader's attention to the work at hand and not bias their thoughts by the man who wrote the …show more content…
Authors in the most formal sense are said to have had their work authenticated by the christian church in the past, this is what would define you as an author. Foucault believes to understand an author you must find their greatest work and remove it to find the constant that the author writes at. You must also exclude a certain style that is not consistent in their works to find the basics of this author's voice, and you must take into account the authors history or life events to further construct your knowledge of this certain individual, only then will you be able to grasp who