Organizers and Anchors

Reading Foucault was like a breath of fresh air in terms of discussion about "the author." I feel as though he outlined the role of the author in a much more realistic way that the previous critics we have read. Perhaps this is simply because he actually acknowledges the author as opposed to trying to "kill" him. The depiction of the author as both an organizer and an anchor seems to b very accurate and astute.

The author most definitely affords organization. It seems to be one of the most basic ways through which we can group texts. In the introduction to Foucault there was a comment that stating " we ascribe a certain unity and coherence to all the works written by a single author, or at least we feel that an author's drastic changes in style or opinion must be explained" (1616-17). I feel that this is extremely true today. I think that the author is slowly evolving into something of tantamount importance to the work itself. for example, in the case of the Harry Potter books, there is an enormous obsession with the author J.K. Rowling. On a more generic level, when fans today become obsessed with a certain series, or a certain group of books by one author, the next logical step seems to be book signings or fan web pages, or even blogs. Many authors now have their very own blogs to keep fans updated on their work and their lives. And fans eat it up. The author has become a marketing tool. It follows then that when fans become enamored with a certain work, or group of works by one author that they would look into others by the same author.

However, the part of the quote that discusses "drastic changes in style or opinion that need to be explained" rings even more true. There are entire web pages devoted to author bashing resulting from a change in style or opinion. And this is where foucault's observations become problematic. When the author is seen as both an organizer and an anchor it can also be stifling. The author has little to no room to change their ideas, content, genre, opinions, style etc. when they have developed a decent fan base. They are expected to produce work like what came before and if they fail to do so they are seen as deviant in some way.

In terms of an author's role in the critical world, these observations are very correct, but they provide yet another problem in the author dilemma. Any situation that limits or hinders the creative liscense of the author should be seen in a negative light...