Avant, Vol. XII, No. 3, https://doi.org/10.26913/avant.2021.03.07
published under license CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Edyta Lorek-Jezińska 
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
lorek@umk.pl
Nelly Strehlau
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
strehlau@umk.pl
Katarzyna Więckowska
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Katarzyna.Wieckowska@umk.pl
Received 28 December 2021; accepted 28 December 2021; published Online First 29 December 2021.
Download full text
Abstract: This article serves as an introduction to the anthology devoted to the study of altering authorships in contemporary literature and culture. Drawing attention to the influence of Roland Barthes’s and Michel Foucault’s works on the author and authorship, the essay emphasises the importance of the context of both production and reception in determining the authority over and responsibility for the literary/cultural text. By altering authorships we mean various processes of diffusing authorial authority, on the one hand, and reassessing authorship for alternative authors, on the other. Conceptualised as authorial absences and authorial presences, the acts of questioning and transforming the practices of authorship and the process of (re)introducing alternative or marginalised authors discussed in the article testify to the continuing significance of the authorship debate. In this context, authorship can be approached as “a living absence” (Berensmeyer et al.), opening space for disruptions, dispersals, redefinitions, negotiations and reconciliations of authorial presences.
Keywords: authorship; authors; authorial practices; transhumanism; gender studies; performativity
Bibliography
| Barad, K. (2018). Posthumanist performativity: Toward an understanding of how matter comes to matter. In C. Åsberg and R. Braidotti (Eds.), A feminist companion to the posthumanities (pp. 223-239). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62140-1_19 |
||||
| Barthes, R. (1988). “The death of the author.” In D. Lodge (Ed.), Modern criticism and theory: A reader (pp. 167-172). London: Longman. | ||||
| Berensmeyer, I., Buelens, G., & Demoor, M. (2012). Authorship as cultural performance: New perspectives in authorship studies. Zeitschrift fur Anglistik und Amerikanistik 60(1), 5-29. https://doi.org/10.1515/zaa.2012.60.1.1 |
||||
| Berensmeyer, I., Buelens, G., & Demoor, M. (2019). Introduction. In I. Berensmeyer, G. Buelens and M. Demoor (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of literary authorship (pp. 1-10). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316717516.001 |
||||
| Burke, S. (1998). The death and return of the author: Criticism and subjectivity in Barthes, Foucault and Derrida. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. | ||||
| Busse, K. (2013). The return of the author: Ethos and identity politics. In J. Gray and D. Johnson (Eds.), A companion to media authorship (pp. 48-68). Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118505526.ch3 |
||||
| Butler, J. (2004a). Undoing gender. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203499627 |
||||
| Butler, J. (2004b). Precarious life: The powers of mourning and violence. London and New York: Verso. | ||||
| Clark, A. (2017, August 15). H(a)ppy by Nicola Barker review – life in a world without stories. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/15/happy-nicola-barker-review-world-without-stories. | ||||
| Craig, C. (2019). Muriel Spark, existentialism and the art of death. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474447201.001.0001 |
||||
| Eagleton, M. (2005). Figuring the woman author in contemporary fiction. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230502215 |
||||
| Foucault, M. (1988). “What is an author?” In D. Lodge (Ed.). Modern criticism and theory: A reader (pp. 197-210). London: Longman. | ||||
| Gandorfer, D. & Ayub, Z. (2021). Introduction: Matterphorical. Theory & Event, 24 (1): 2-13. https://doi.org/10.1353/tae.2021.0001 |
||||
| Gibbons, A. (2012). Multimodal literature and experimentation. In J. Bray, A. Gibbons and B. McHale (Eds.), The Routledge companion to experimental literature (pp. 420- 434). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203803219 |
||||
| Hedrick, D. & Reynolds, B. (2000). Shakespace and transversal power. In Hedrick, D. and B. Reynolds (Eds.), Shakespeare without class: Misappropriations of cultural capital (pp. 3-47). New York & Basingstoke: Palgrave. | ||||
| Humm, M. (1997). Feminism and film. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. | ||||
| Hutcheon, L. (1988). A poetics of postmodernism: History, theory, fiction. London: Routledge. | ||||
| Iovino, S. & Oppermann, S. (2012). Material ecocriticism: Materiality, agency, and the models of narrativity. ecozon@, Vol. 3, No. 1: 75-91. https://doi.org/10.37536/ECOZONA.2012.3.1.452 |
||||
| Kulpa, R., & Mizielinska, J. (2012). Guest editors’ introduction: Central and Eastern European sexualities “in transition”. Reflections on queer studies, academic hegemonies, and critical epistemologies. Lambda Nordica, 17(4), 19-29. Retrieved November 26, 2021 from https://www.lambdanordica.org/index.php/lambdanordica/article/view/359. | ||||
| McCarthy, T. (2016). Foreword: On being the subject of a conference or, what do I know? In D. Duncan (Ed.), Tom McCarthy: Critical essays (pp. 1-2). Canterbury: Gylphi. | ||||
| Schwartz, A. (2018, November 18). “I don’t think character exists anymore”: A conversation with Rachel Cusk. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/i-dont-think-character-exists-anymore-a-conversation-with-rachel-cusk. | ||||
| Sprinker, M. (2014). Fictions of the self: The end of autobiography. In J. Olney (Ed.), Autobiography: Essays theoretical and critical (pp. 321-342). Princeton: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400856312.321 |
||||
| Stockman, O. (2004). Producing the Children’s Midsummer night’s dream (2001): A discussion with Olivier Stockman. In S. Hatchuel and N. Vienne-Guerrin (Eds.), Shakespeare on screen: The midsummer night’s dream (pp. 115-128). Rouen: L’Universite de Rouen. | ||||
| Sutherland, J. (2014, June 6). Eimear McBride’s novel doesn’t fit any terms we use to categorise writing. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/06/eimear-mcbride-novel-terms-writing-consciousness. | ||||
| Wilton, T. 1995. Lesbian studies: Setting an agenda. London: Routledge. | ||||