Michel Foucault's "What is an Author?"

[@kimfreeborn]

Nice discussion of the issue of authorship. How much things have changed since the poststructuralism of the period. The intentional author and his referent having been excluded from the reader's interpretation opened up the play of textuality. This opening brought into question the stratification of the text into a hierarchy of meaning. However, it never really provided a totalizing escape from the juridical space. In fact postmodernism and here I'm talking about the movement has instead of freeing the text it has more tightly bound it to authorial accountability. Not since the inquisition has a author been potentially under such circumspection. The politicization of the author by sex, race, ethnicity seems to have become the dominant field of enunciation and understanding. Instead of freeing the author from subjugation, postmodernism, has nailed the author to the text. As Nietzsche would of said "The sight of the author now makes us sick." Thank you Michel.

[@tangerinesarebetterthanora7060]

Some of these biological markers are hardly arbitrary although this is still a very important discussion to have especially in regards to the racism that these norms can propagate. Many of these biological markers have been programmed into us through thousands of years of evolution. "The wisdom of the body" that Nietzsche embraces and rectifies. Focualt is at many points a degenerate not in the loaded sense of the word but in the sense that he embraces the descent of life. Anybody that was once obese and has lost that weight and has lost a significant amount of weight will agree that they FEEL better. The mind is the body and you simply can't nourish one without nourishing the other. I would argue that our social systems actively discourage embracing this wisdom (of the body). There is a phenomena that sometimes occurs when somebody gets "into shape" a threshold where when crossed your "friends" may disparage this activity because they are resentful and actively discouragw you. Understanding Nietzsches conception of resentment will make it easier to understand why this occurs.

[@Curlzyness]

Your explanation is immensly helping me through reading the original text. Thinking that if I've read it just a few months ago, I would've probably struggled more. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.

[@drjaydeepchakrabarty]

The issue is actually grounded in formalism and new criticism, the fields that prioritised the reading of texts even before structuralism; let alone poststructuralism. I A Richards and T S Eliot are key forebears here

[@siddharthbansal333]

Hey David! Could you please cover Foucault’s text on Heterotopia....?

[@jellyfish4311]

Thanks so much still confused but in a better way

[@benasbaranovskis639]

Funny thing first... A cover of an essay above my wall is hanging. It only says "The Death of the author - by Roland Barthes". Sad thing - cannot upload a picture here. :D

[@aliasif2687]

what is the difference between 'signification' and 'representation' ?

[@stavroskarageorgis4804]

How you "got" something that to my ears sounded like "Bahlt" from "Barthes" is a mystery, to me at least.

[@jallands]

It's a French name and that's the French pronunciation

[@stavroskarageorgis4804]

@jallands [baʁt] is the IPA transcription of his last name.

[@stavroskarageorgis4804]

@jallands It is not the French pronunciation.

[@jallands]

@stavroskarageorgis4804 i think it's not a good French pronunciation

[@jchinckley]

I think he looked up the pronunciation on Google Translate and listened only once. He didn't listen closely, so when the voice says "Barthes" it kinda does sound like "Bahlt," but that's not what the voice is actually saying. The "r" in this case almost takes the sound of an English "u" here so that if you aren't listening closely it transforms into a different sound because of the way the French pronounce it. It resulted from a superficial listen rather than an attempt to understand how it was being said/pronounced. You can try it yourself. Just turn up your sound and make it say it 5-6 times and you'll hear why he made that mistake. It's kinda hard to say the "r" sound at the back of your throat and that's what they do in French, which to unaware English ears makes it sound almost like an "L." The "es" is almost always silent in French.

[@cheri238]

Focault was deep, period. What about C.J. Jung's writings of black books and drawings kept hidden until 2015? "The Redbook" Libra Novus edited and with an Introduction by Sonu Shamdasani. Why did the estate of Carl Jung's family keep the hidden in a bank vault for years? Was the world ready today for all his writings. I think so. Even Jung understood why. Would one think he was insane? No, absolutely not. As of now, there are many updates of Jungian analysts still writing, and some of them may not agree with one another. Authorship and whose works may grow. Sadly for Freud and Jung, their friendship ended.

[@aykay1468]

Foucault is pretty pogchamp I'd say

[@blueberry3717]

agreed kekw

[@ComradeDt]

Thats how Barthes is pronounced?

[@stavroskarageorgis4804]

@@ComradeDt It is not. [ baʁt]

[@Zing_art]

Interesting. Author constricts the meaning of the text? What if, the author is a public figure and creates a paratext for themselves? How does one read 'pure', without the paratexts? I think the author can never really die, can they?

[@drjaydeepchakrabarty]

Enlightening

[@shameemabinterahman]

While listening to this podcast, I was wondering what is an author in this AI-driven reality when Chatgpt writes everything it is asked to write (though not well-formed yet). Just wondering to know what you think. It could be a video or a podcast in the light of philosophical transposition and juxtaposition. I don't know, just sharing my question that came up while listening 🙂 BTW, thank you for your effort.

[@emptybuddha5308]

Nonsense. The author is more important than ever in literary studies.

[@FrostRare]

First