The author in the imaginary of the post-modernity: Rethinking Flusser and Foucault

Abstract

The term authorship, at the present time, deserves to be revisited. Difficult to understand because it presents a polissemic meaning, the authorship has always generated controversy, mainly from Michel Foucault’s article (1969) based on his inaugural class in Collège of France, entitled What is an author?. Roland Barthes, other influential theoretical of the French thinkers’ lineage, was more explicit, and wrote The author’s death. The Czech Vilém Flusser also questioned the postulate of authorship, among many others. However, the author, who seemed to be dead, is reborn, blooms, returns to the scene, but with the form of post-modernity (Teixeira Coelho, 1995). Therefore, it is in the post-modern atmosphere that the author should be (re)thought. The thought of the authorship should be contemporary to the own authorship idea, which doesn’t mean an obligation to work just with its contemporary authors. The result is a paradox allowed in this post-modernity: reviewing the past to, in the present, launch seeds in this kind of society.

Key words: authorship, imaginary, post-modernity.