The Near-Death of the Author: Creativity in the Internet Age

Description

In the modern world of networked digital media, authors must navigate many challenges. Most pressingly, the illegal downloading and streaming of copyright material on the internet deprives authors of royalties, and in some cases it has discouraged creativity or terminated careers. Exploring technology’s impact on the status and idea of authorship in today’s world, The Near-Death of the Author reveals the many obstacles facing contemporary authors. John Potts details how the online culture of remix and creative reuse operates in a post-authorship mode, with little regard for individual authorship. The book explores how developments in algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) have yielded novels, newspaper articles, musical works, films, and paintings without the need of human authors or artists. It also examines how these AI achievements have provoked questions regarding the authorship of new works, such as Does the author need to be human? And, more alarmingly, Is there even a need for human authors? Providing suggestions on how contemporary authors can endure in the world of data, the book ultimately concludes that network culture has provoked the near-death, but not the death, of the author. Cover Half-Title Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments Introduction 1 “Heroes with Names”: What Is the Author? 2 “I Don’t Own It”: Contemporary Complications 3 Who Is the Author / Who Are the Authors? 4 A Brief History of the Author 5 The Alleged Death of the Author: Post-structuralism and Postmodernism 6 The Author and Technology: Downloading vs. Copyright 7 Big Data Writing: Author as Algorithm 8 AI vs. the Author 9 “Creative Reuse”: Post-authorship in Internet Culture Epilogue: The Near-Death, Not the Death, of the Author Notes Bibliography Index