Authorship’s Wake: Writing After the Death of the Author

Description

Authorship's Wake examines the aftermath of the 1960s critique of the author, epitomized by Roland Barthes's essay, “The Death of the Author.” This critique has given rise to a body of writing that confounds generic distinctions separating the literary and the theoretical. Its archive consists of texts by writers who either directly participated in this critique, as Barthes did, or whose intellectual formation took place in its immediate aftermath. These writers include some who are known primarily as theorists (Judith Butler), others known primarily as novelists (Zadie Smith, David Foster Wallace), and yet others whose texts are difficult to categorize (the autofiction of Chris Kraus, Sheila Heti, and Ben Lerner; the autotheory of Maggie Nelson). These writers share not only a central motivating question – how to move beyond the critique of the author-subject – but also a way of answering it: by writing texts that merge theoretical concerns with literary discourse. Authorship's Wake traces the responses their work offers in relation to four themes: communication, intention, agency, and labor. Cover Contents Introduction: “Words Streaming in Your Wake” 1. Sole Authors 2. Writing After 3. Communication, Intention, Agency, Labor Chapter 1 Communication: Maggie Nelson and the Literary Text as Letter 1. Introduction 2. Letters 2.1. The Literary Text as Letter 2.2. Epistolarity and The Argonauts 2.3. The Risks of Letter-Writing 2.4. Silence 3. Communication, Nonsense, and Space 3.1. “Whereof One Cannot Speak” 3.2. Acknowledged Nonsense 3.3. Space 3.4. The Work of the Reader 4. The Argonauts and the Ethics of Space 4.1. Fragments 4.2. Allusions and Family-Making Chapter 2 Intention: The Inconsistent Anti-Intentionalism of Zadie Smith and Judith Butler 1. Introduction 1.1. Consulting the Oracle 1.2. Intention and the Authorship Debates 2. On Beauty and Anti-Intentionalism 2.1. Zadie Smith and the Return to Authorial Intention 2.2. On Beauty against the Critique of Intention 2.3. On Beauty and Psychoanalysis 2.4. On Beauty and Critique 3. The Humanities Quandary 3.1. Judith Butler and the Humanities Quandary 3.2. Howard Belsey and the Humanities Quandary 3.3. “In Effect If Not in Intent” 4. Conclusion Chapter 3 Agency: Roland Barthes and the Men Who Hold Forth 1. Introduction 1.1. “Mr. Very Important” 1.2. “Men Explain Things to Me” in Context 2. Autofiction versus the Man Who Holds Forth 2.1. I Love Dick 2.2. How Should a Person Be? 2.3. 10:04 2.4. “What Is It to Hold Forth?” 3. Roland Barthes, Man Who Holds Forth? 3.1. The Charge of Apoliticism 3.2. Barthes and Queer Politics 3.3. Barthes and Post-1968 Orientalism 3.4. Barthes and Feminism 3.5. Barthes as Teacher and Author Chapter 4 Labor: David Foster Wallace, Cowboy of Information 1. Introduction 1.1. Bureaucratizing Writing 2. Accountants, Writers, and Cowboys 2.1. On Amy Hungerford Not Reading DFW 2.2. Accountants 2.3. Writers 2.4. Cowboys 3. Two Broad Arcs 3.1. Neoliberalism and Information Work 3.2. Low Theory Conclusion: Study Groups Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index