REAL

The Death and the Revival of the Author

Hajdu, Péter (2014) The Death and the Revival of the Author. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 34 (4). pp. 172-181. ISSN 0257-0254

[img]
Preview
Text
deathof_the_author_u_143412.135858.pdf

Download (319kB) | Preview

Abstract

The most influential trends in 20th century literary criticism and theory of literature can be described as revolting against a both Romantic and positivist approach which focused on the person of the author rather than his or her literary product. Formalism New Criticism structuralism and post-structuralism denied any importance of the biographical author and dealt with texts exclusively. After the Barthesian formulation of the death of the author ( applauded by towering figures like Foucault or Derrida) the end of the 20th and even more the beginning of the 21st centuries have brought back the importance of the author. For some new trends (especially in post-colonial and gender studies) the personal or even the bodily experience of the biographical author seems the most important aspect of literature which is (again) the expression of a personal experience which is however not of personal but of social interest. The revival of the author as refusal to look at literature as a self-centered play should not deny the importance of close reading or textual analysis since the intellectual capital collected by 20th century literary criticism is still worth applying.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: P Language and Literature / nyelvészet és irodalom > PN Literature (General) / irodalom általában
SWORD Depositor: MTMT SWORD
Depositing User: MTMT SWORD
Date Deposited: 30 Nov 2014 16:55
Last Modified: 31 Dec 2015 00:15
URI: http://real.mtak.hu/id/eprint/18656

Actions (login required)

Edit Item Edit Item