Author function

The author function is the author as a function of discourse. The term was developed by Michel Foucault in his 1969 essay "What Is an Author?" where he discusses whether a text requires or is assigned an author. [1] Foucault posits that the legal system was central in the rise of the author, as an author was needed (in order to be punished) for making transgressive statements. This is made evident through the rise of the printing press during the time of the Reformation, when religious texts that circulated challenged the authority of the Catholic Church.

The author function does not affect all texts in the same way. For example, the author of a science text book is not as clear or definable as the author of a novel. It is not a spontaneous creation or entity, but a carefully constructed social position.

## See also

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* Roland Barthes
* Death of the Author

## References

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* Archaeology of knowledge, by Michel Foucault, Alan Sheridan

1. ^ "Foucault, Michel "The Author Function." Excerpt from "What is an Author?" Translation D.F. Bouchard and S. Simon, In Language, Counter-Memory, Practice, 124-127. Cornell University Press, 1977".

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Michel Foucault

Books|

* Mental Illness and Psychology (1954)
* Madness and Civilization (1961)
* The Birth of the Clinic (1963)
* Death and the Labyrinth (1963)
* The Order of Things (1966)
* This Is Not a Pipe (1968)
* The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969)
* Discipline and Punish (1975)
* The History of Sexuality (1976–2018)

Essays, lectures,
dialogues and
anthologies|

* Introduction to Kant's Anthropology (1964)
* "What Is an Author?" (1969)
* Foucault's lectures at the Collège de France
* I, Pierre Riviere, Having Slaughtered My Mother, My Sister and My Brother (1973)
* Language, Counter-Memory, Practice (1977)
* Herculine Barbin (1978)
* Power/Knowledge (1980)
* Remarks on Marx (1980)
* Le Désordre des familles (1982)
* The Foucault Reader (1984)
* "What Is Enlightenment?" (1984)
* Politics, Philosophy, Culture (1988)
* Foucault Live (1996)
* The Politics of Truth (1997)
* Society Must Be Defended (1997)
* Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth (Essential Works Volume 1) (1997)
* Aesthetics, Method, Epistemology (Essential Works Volume 2) (1998)
* Abnormal (1999)
* Power (Essential Works Volume 3) (2000)
* Fearless Speech (2001)
* The Hermeneutics of the Subject (2001)
* The Essential Foucault (2003)
* Psychiatric Power (2003)
* Security, Territory, Population (2004)
* The Birth of Biopolitics (2004)
* The Government of Self and Others (2008)
* The Courage of Truth (2009)
* Lectures on the Will to Know (2011)
* On the Government of the Living (2012)
* Subjectivity and Truth (2012)
* Wrong-Doing, Truth-Telling (2013)
* On the Punitive Society (2015)

Concepts|

* Anti-psychiatry
* Author function
* Biopolitics
* Biopower
* Carceral archipelago
* Cultural imperialism
* Disciplinary institution
* Discontinuity
* Discourse analysis
* Dispositif
* Episteme
* Genealogy
* Governmentality
* Ecogovernmentality
* Heterotopia
* Interdiscourse
* Limit-experience
* Parrhesia
* Power (social and political)
* Postsexualism
* Sapere aude

Influence|

* "Cogito and the History of Madness" (Derrida)
* Foucauldian discourse analysis
* Foucault (Deleuze)
* The Passion of Michel Foucault (Miller)
* Giorgio Agamben
* Gary Gutting
* Thomas Lemke
* James Miller
* Paul Rabinow
* Claude Raffestin
* Nikolas Rose
* Foucault in Iran

Related articles|

* Bibliography
* Foucault–Habermas debate
* Chomsky–Foucault debate
* Daniel Defert
* François Ewald
* Alan Sheridan

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