Literary discourse
Do writers put the ‘author’ in authority? Disruption in literature regarding authorship and authority
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36399/GroundingsUG.11.174Keywords:
Authorship, Authority, Disruption, Narrators, Death of the AuthorAbstract
The exploration of disruption regarding the authorship and authority relationship—if there is one at all —is a beyond challenging concept; and because of this raises ontological questions. The texts The Pillowman and The Good Soldier provide an interesting scope for this investigation, as the characters are aware of themselves as authors and of the readers within the narrative. Can we ever separate authorship and authority? I will explore the disturbing effect that authority has on the relationship between text, reader and author. Clearly, the lines are blurred when regarding Cora Kaplan’s statement—“For me the greatest danger when reading a literary text is to assume that authorship and authority mean the same thing.” The factors I will discuss are: subjectivity, power relations, unreliable narration, self-conscious narrative, the meaning of art and egalitarianism and the value of names and texts. These factors appear to blur the lines between authorship and authority. The factors I chose to discuss acquired analysis and further inspection, when looking at the authorship-authority relationship.
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