Author???

This week’s topic has been about authorship. This is when we not only focus on analyzing the text but view how the author influences the text. Would Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet been as influential if it wasn’t for Shakespeare? Would Van Gough painting be so praised if it wasn’t be for Van Gough? Would the Mona Lisa been famous if it was not for the painter being so significant? The point is ….what would the text be without the connection with the author?
This is some of the points that Foucault talks about in his article, “What is an Author?” In this piece he examines whether a reader focus on the actually text or do they focus on the text through the author. Before we even read Romeo and Juliet, we already know it is written by the famous Shakespeare and we already assume that this piece is one that is going to be incredible. But Foucault states the question “what if the author was dead”? How would we view the text? Would we continue to view it as such an exquisite piece without the author of Shakespeare standing behind it? There is no right answer. But Foucault says that when the author is dead, the reader is born. He believes that when the author is dead then the author is no longer the source of origin of the meaning behind the text; which allows the reader to focus on the text for what is it rather than through the connection of the author.
In the blog, “CultureCat: Rhetoric and Feminism”(http://culturecat.net/node/575) states, “The field of composition has moved from the understanding of authorship as a solitary act resulting in a product owned by an individual to an understanding of authorship as a weaving together of other texts the writer has read and voices he or she has heard in conversation. In this statement it proves…that as readers we tend to connect the text with the author. We do not mean to do it however this is a tendency we became accustomed to because this is what society has taught us. We view text through the author. How would it be if we didn’t? Would our favorite stories, painting, etc be as powerful????