Foucault What is an Author? Flashcards
Four characteristic traits of the author function
(1) the author function is linked to the juridical and institutional system that encompasses, determines, and articulates the universe of discourses
(2) it does not affect all discourses in the same way at all times and in all types of civilization
(3) it is not defined by the spontaneous attribution of a discourse to its producer but, rather, by a series of specific and complex operations
(4) it does not refer purely and simply to a real individual, since it can give rise simultaneously to several selves, to several subjects—positions that can be occupied by different classes of individuals
“It is easy to see that in the sphere of discourse one can be the author of much more than a book—one can be the author of a theory, tradition, or discipline in which other books and authors will in their turn find a place. These authors are in a position that I will can ___________”
Transdiscursive
Examples of the transdiscursive phenomenon
Homer, Aristotle, the Church Fathers, first mathematicians, and the originators of the Hippocratic tradition
Also, 19th century “founders of discursivity”
What differentiates founders of discursivity from novelists
They made possible not only a certain numbers of analogies but also a certain number of differences
They have created a possibility for something other than their discourse, yet something belonging to what they founded
Uses Freud and Marx as examples.
Difference between scientific founders of discourse and other founders of discourse
“In the case of a science, the act that founds it is on an equal footing with its future transformations; this act becomes in some respects part of the set of modifications that make it possible”
“unlike the founding of a science, the initiation of s discursive practice…”
“does not participate in its later transformations”
“return to the origin”
“this return, which is part of the discursive field itself, never stops modifying it. The return is not a historical supplement that would be added to to discursivity…on the contrary, it constitutes an effective and necessary task of transforming the discursive practice itself. … reexamining Freud’s texts modifiies psychoanalysis itself, just as a reexamination of Marx’s would modify Marxism.”
