Majoritatea întrebărilor formulate de revista Vatra în chestionarul ce aniversează cei 50 de ani de la momentul 1968 ar putea fi reduse la următoarea "Ur-interogație" formulată de Bruno Latour în titlul unui articol influent publicat în...
moreMajoritatea întrebărilor formulate de revista Vatra în chestionarul ce aniversează cei 50 de ani de la momentul 1968 ar putea fi reduse la următoarea "Ur-interogație" formulată de Bruno Latour în titlul unui articol influent publicat în 2004 în Critical Inquiry: "Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern". În cele ce urmează, nu o să acord prea multă atenție nici prezumțiozității implicate în prima parte a titlului lui Latour și nici detaliilor alambicate ale argumentului lui.
Stefan Manasia - Cerul senin
Noul volum semnat de Andrei Dósa poate fi citit, în aceeași logică, ca o teribilă meditație privind frivolitatea valorizării și, totodată, ca o reflecție ironică realizată pe marginea meschinăriilor socializării.
Cei care au urmărit cu atenție publicistica literară actuală au observat, probabil, faptul că, aproape fără excepție, comentariile realizate în marginea ultimului volum marca Dan Coman încep cu un scurt rezumat al evoluției poeticii celui...
moreCei care au urmărit cu atenție publicistica literară actuală au observat, probabil, faptul că, aproape fără excepție, comentariile realizate în marginea ultimului volum marca Dan Coman încep cu un scurt rezumat al evoluției poeticii celui care a debutat cu Anul cârtiței galbene în urmă cu cincisprezece ani. Ajuns, iată, la cea de-a zecea publicație, cariera scriitorului reclamă ea însăși o asemenea recapitulare de proporții. În aceeași măsură, aș zice, schimbarea e mult mai ușor de sugerat odată ce în fața ochilor ți se înalță o oareșicare schiță reprezentând elementele abandonate.
În dimineața celui de-al treilea mileniu, critica literar-culturală are de înfruntat o problemă spinoasă și – se pare – extrem de productivă: cea a renașterii megaromanului. Într-un „acum” în care volumul și calitatea nu (mai) fac casă...
moreÎn dimineața celui de-al treilea
mileniu, critica literar-culturală are
de înfruntat o problemă spinoasă și
– se pare – extrem de productivă: cea
a renașterii megaromanului. Într-un
„acum” în care volumul și calitatea
nu (mai) fac casă bună împreună,
reîntoarcerea cărților corpolente –
folosite mai degrabă pe post de opritoare
și mai puțin pentru lectură – reprezintă,
trebuie s-o recunoaștem, un fenomen
cel puțin bizar. De investigat agenda
marilor edituri ce promovează în mod
agresiv asemenea dihănii narative,
oferind, de pildă, două milioane de
dolari unui debutant precum Garth
Risk Hallberg și romanului său, City on
Fire (Orașul în flăcări).
Atunci când nu trece drept cea mai pură stofă de autobiografie, poezia lui Andrei Bodiu se desfășoară, așadar, întocmai transcrierii unui nesfârșit dialog cu prietenii lui (imaginari sau nu – „Virgil, Ciprian, Dudu și cu mine”, „Eu cu...
moreAtunci când nu trece drept cea mai pură
stofă de autobiografie, poezia lui Andrei
Bodiu se desfășoară, așadar, întocmai
transcrierii unui nesfârșit dialog cu
prietenii lui (imaginari sau nu – „Virgil,
Ciprian, Dudu și cu mine”, „Eu cu
Mihai Ignat discutând despre Thomas
Wolfe în anticiariat”, „Devoratorul și
Fumătorul”).
Surprinzător a fost mereu faptul că V. Leac a reușit să se reinventeze odată cu apariția fiecărui nou volum. Cariera lui e consecventă, ca să zic așa, doar prin inconsecvență poetică. Pentru autorul arădean, o nouă carte însemna, dacă...
moreSurprinzător a fost mereu faptul că
V. Leac a reușit să se reinventeze
odată cu apariția fiecărui nou
volum. Cariera lui e consecventă, ca
să zic așa, doar prin inconsecvență
poetică. Pentru autorul arădean, o
nouă carte însemna, dacă vreți,
un nou debut editorial. Lucrurile
nu s-au schimbat nici măcar acum.
Aici mai trebuie adăugat însă faptul
că reconfigurările presupuneau, fără
excepție, și o oarecare evoluție stilistică.
Oricât de straniu ar părea, poezia lui Iulian Fruntașu se integrează perfect
între aceste două coordonate, fiind receptată, nu o dată, atât ca o
prelungire a postmodernismului, dar și ca o reală exemplificare a reţetei
anarhiste.
What the rhetorical chorus mediates, then, are the constitutional, historical, proprietary, and postural relationships between an author’s name and his or her work, which I would now like to systematically clarify with the help of the...
moreWhat the rhetorical chorus mediates, then, are the constitutional, historical, proprietary, and postural relationships between an author’s name and his or her work, which I would now like to systematically clarify with the help of the following analytical agenda:
A) authorship represents a textual FUNCTION: this simply means that authorship is an attribute of discourses (texts are, consequently, legitimized and unified);
B) authorship is bound, at the same time, to a historical FIGURE: the author/writer represents the source and the origins of various texts; these texts are, then, authorized (the author is also the owner of intellectual property rights);
C) authorship is also represented as a FORM: i.e. – the media images of the author (self-thematization, iconography, posture, biographies, or the author as a literary celebrity, for instance);
D) authorship, finally, is also a FORCE: the ideological, political, religious, and commercial powers of an author (authorship as a form of symbolic capital).
For quite a while now, authorship studies seem to have been stuck in what might be called 90s nostalgia—something which the academic community typically refers to as the return of the author.1 I call this phrase (or phase, if you will)...
moreFor quite a while now, authorship studies seem to have been stuck in what might be called 90s nostalgia—something which the academic community typically refers to as the return of the author.1 I call this phrase (or phase, if you will) ‘nostalgic’ because part of its appeal still lies in the acknowledgement that there used to be a time when the author had completely vanished from the face of the literary earth, as it were. In April 2019, I travelled to Durham to give a paper at a conference expounding on the same subject—‘The Return of the Author’.
Metamodernism. Historicity, Affect, and Depth After Postmodernism ed. by Robin van den Akker, Alison Gibbons, and Timotheus Vermeulen (review)
A Hermeneutical Reading of a Postmodern British Novel. Time and Narrative in David Lodge's " Thinks... ". The present paper investigates two aspects of a postmodern British novel. From a narratological...
moreA Hermeneutical Reading of a Postmodern British Novel. Time and Narrative in David Lodge's " Thinks... ". The present paper investigates two aspects of a postmodern British novel. From a narratological perspective, we will examine the ways in which time-as a theme, on the one hand, and as a fictional issue, on the other-is constructed in David Lodge's " Thinks… ". Leaving behind post-structuralist instruments of analysis (deconstructive reading practices), the article will argue in favor of a more nuanced approach by showing the advantages of utilizing hermeneutical and phenomenological instruments in exploring postmodernist techniques of emplotment.
In current debates of authorship, a somewhat controversial issue has surprisingly been the centuries-old argument surrounding the status of creative subjects. Some academics have briskly asserted that the author is categorically dead. On...
moreIn current debates of authorship, a somewhat controversial issue has surprisingly been the centuries-old argument surrounding the status of creative subjects. Some academics have briskly asserted that the author is categorically dead. On the other hand, however, others have claimed quite the contrary. As such, an extraordinary number of researchers sustain that the (same) author has made a definite come-back. I will try to show that all debates surrounding the-death-and-return-of-the-author conundrum should readily be discarded since they are directly accountable for the conceptual deadlock we find ourselves in today. Consequently, my paper will focus on emphasizing new ways in which literary scholars could come to terms with what’s unfolding right in front of our eyes: a new regime of authoriality.
Literary Historiography and the Problem of the Author: Mihai Iovănel's History and Recent Developments in Authorship Studies. The present paper examines the dynamics between literary historiography and authorship studies and the...
moreLiterary Historiography and the Problem of the Author: Mihai Iovănel's History and Recent Developments in Authorship Studies. The present paper examines the dynamics between literary historiography and authorship studies and the way in which these problems related to Mihai Iovănel's recent History. Ciorogar argues that authorship theories have always determined the workings of canonicity. Furthermore, the metamorphoses of literary histories could be viewed, he insists, as a series of conceptual revolutions. Consequently, arguments related to authorship have given rise to both new fields of research and disciplines. Finally, Ciorogar also suggests that the evolution of literary criticism and theory is more or less coeval with the history of auctorial models.
A contested notion, the figure of the translator-like that of the author-is (and has always been), I would argue, a travelling concept. It is, however, a powerful force, perpetually wielding a certain enchanting lure over those involved...
moreA contested notion, the figure of the translator-like that of the author-is (and has always been), I would argue, a travelling concept. It is, however, a powerful force, perpetually wielding a certain enchanting lure over those involved in the field of literary culture and academic studies. Nevertheless, the translator still currently lacks the appropriate symbolic capital. In the wake of poststructuralist, postmodern, and postcolonial theories, my paper examines contemporary translation by mapping the network of interacting structures and transformations that underpin ongoing literary phenomena. The said conceptual frameworks start to fade with the expansion of planetary studies and relational aesthetics, and th e birth of post-internet communication technologies. Globalization and digitization, as well as world and systemic approaches to literary studies, have decisively altered the structure of the field, establishing a 21st-century translational symptomatology. The importance of translators and the ways in which they work and transport works across international landscapes have, indeed, recently come to the fore. Nevertheless, the question of how the translator should be redefined in our late global society remains deeply contested. Defined either as a media construct or as a set of textual images, the translator still seems to inhabit the realm of authorial presence and/or absence. No work has hitherto examined the question of the translator in ecological terms, even if ecology and literature have, indeed, been associated in many ways. By exploring the diversity of translation theories and practices, my paper will reveal the mechanisms through which our current literary system works, showing that-in a post-critical age-'the ascension of the translator' constitutes an unfolding site of controversy and dissent.
Literary Historiography and the Problem of the Author: Mihai Iovănel's History and Recent Developments in Authorship Studies. The present paper examines the dynamics between literary historiography and authorship studies and the way in...
moreLiterary Historiography and the Problem of the Author: Mihai Iovănel's History and Recent Developments in Authorship Studies. The present paper examines the dynamics between literary historiography and authorship studies and the way in which these problems related to Mihai Iovănel's recent History. Ciorogar argues that authorship theories have always determined the workings of canonicity. Furthermore, the metamorphoses of literary histories could be viewed, he insists, as a series of conceptual revolutions. Consequently, arguments related to authorship have given rise to both new fields of research and disciplines. Finally, Ciorogar also suggests that the evolution of literary criticism and theory is more or less coeval with the history of auctorial models.
CnCs-uefisCdi, project number Pn-III-P4-id-PCe-2020-2006, within PnCdi III. i n the last couple of decades of the 20 th century, "the death of the author" 1 has been tirelessly haunting the field of literary studies. More often than not,...
moreCnCs-uefisCdi, project number Pn-III-P4-id-PCe-2020-2006, within PnCdi III. i n the last couple of decades of the 20 th century, "the death of the author" 1 has been tirelessly haunting the field of literary studies. More often than not, however, this concept and its underlying arguments seem to have been structured around metaphors and lines of reasoning already firmly established in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s by seminal thinkers such as Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, 2 and Jacques Derrida. 3 In more recent times, though, portrayals of "the return of the author" 4 have been also thriving, presenting the restorative postulation as an ideational trope able to-at least purportedly-facilitate an entirely new meditation on the topic and to finally move beyond the doom and gloom of poststructuralist deconstruction, in a pragmatic yet ideological proclamation of sorts. It would be facile yet unmistakably true to say that, in the wake of Foucault's work, the field has been framed by genealogical approaches that openly acknowledged and criticized the power relations between individual writers and cultural institutions. 5 Similarly, though, the scientific context has been also dominated, as previously mentioned, by narratives inspired by Roland Barthes' poststructuralist theories as well as Jacques Derrida's deconstructionist approach. Ever since, academics have been endorsing research stratagems that were myopically focused on the play of authorial disappearance and reappearance. 6 Even though this critical framework has been hugely lucrative, recent phenomena such as globalization and digitization, as well as world and systemic approaches to literary studies have decisively altered the structure of our sphere of study. 7 Before describing a new authorial regime and how we can use informational ecologies, I would like to prudently move forward by submitting a few conditional remarks to gauge the issue at hand. The first of these is related to the notion of authorship in what could be called an axiological perspective and it claims that the idea of authorship is invariably the item of some form of contestation. 8 Between Plato's banishment, Wimsatt & Beardsley' anti-intentional stance and Barthes' aforesaid insurrection, comments on authoriality typically entail discursive attitudes somewhat similar to those involved in statements made about
Metamodernism. Historicity, Affect, and Depth After Postmodernism ed. by Robin van den Akker, Alison Gibbons, and Timotheus Vermeulen (review)
A Hermeneutical Reading of a Postmodern British Novel. Time and Narrative in David Lodge's " Thinks... ". The present paper investigates two aspects of a postmodern British novel. From a narratological...
moreA Hermeneutical Reading of a Postmodern British Novel. Time and Narrative in David Lodge's " Thinks... ". The present paper investigates two aspects of a postmodern British novel. From a narratological perspective, we will examine the ways in which time-as a theme, on the one hand, and as a fictional issue, on the other-is constructed in David Lodge's " Thinks… ". Leaving behind post-structuralist instruments of analysis (deconstructive reading practices), the article will argue in favor of a more nuanced approach by showing the advantages of utilizing hermeneutical and phenomenological instruments in exploring postmodernist techniques of emplotment.
In the last couple of decades, digital processes have accelerated what we typically call globalization. In contemporary scholarly literature on translation, then, the understanding of translators as relational agents has continually...
moreIn the last couple of decades, digital processes have accelerated what we typically call globalization. In contemporary scholarly literature on translation, then, the understanding of translators as relational agents has continually evolved. Scholars have, indeed, considered the importance of translators for the field of literary studies, but an ecological approach unfortunately remains absent in current research, since academics have relied either on deconstructive or pragmatist accounts of translation. Rather than passive mediators, then, I contend that translators represent an essential aspect of world authorship, thus examining the role of translators as a defining element of contemporary global culture.
A post-anthropocentric epistemological assemblage becomes indispensable in the investigation of the ecology of the Romanian novel. We examine the interactive relationship of various dynamic systems, such as 1) the evolution of the...
moreA post-anthropocentric epistemological assemblage becomes indispensable in the investigation of the ecology of the
Romanian novel. We examine the interactive relationship of various dynamic systems, such as 1) the evolution of the Romanian
novel, 2) the modes of representation of the environment, and 3) the social-political history of the autochthonous space. Using a
wide range of methodological perspectives, this paper also examines the relationship between literature and the Earth sciences,
thus envisioning a new type of literary history where the Romanian novel should be thought as existing within hyper-objects,
such as the climate, agriculture, wilderness, pollution, biosphere, cultural politics, capitalism, or geology. The article finally
addresses the issue of zoopoetics both as an object of study in the MDRR digital archive (1845-1947) and as a reading strategy,
thus, favoring the relationship between animality and narrativity.
From the point of view of its internal temporality, the Romanian novel between 1933 and 1947 demonstrates an overwhelming preference for negotiating the present. After 1933 the world had already gone through a World War and a world...
moreFrom the point of view of its internal temporality, the Romanian novel between 1933 and 1947 demonstrates an
overwhelming preference for negotiating the present. After 1933 the world had already gone through a World War and a world
economic crisis - so that the metabolism of the present in post-1933 Romanian novels can also be explained as a post-traumatic
shock, an attempt to process the traumatic information of recent history. But the Romanian novel, in its earlier ages, had been
synchronous with historical events of relatively comparable magnitude: the European Revolution of 1848, the Crimean War,
the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, translated in Romania as the War of Independence, the
Romanian economic crisis from 1899-1901, the peasant uprising of 1907, with its bloody repression, the Balkan wars, the Great
Union of 1918, etc. And yet, this succession of historical events did not have the effect of establishing the historical present as a
preferential time of the Romanian novel. Only the Romanian novelist between 1933 and 1947 clearly prefers "recognition" in the
present history, in the immediate actuality; the narrative no longer means for him the construction of a patrimonial memory,
but almost exclusively a construction of the historical present. Between 1933 and 1947, the Romanian novel is synchronized with
its own present.
In current debates of authorship, a somewhat controversial issue has surprisingly been the centuries-old argument surrounding the status of creative subjects. Some academics have briskly asserted that the author is categorically dead. On...
moreIn current debates of authorship, a somewhat controversial issue has surprisingly been the centuries-old argument surrounding the status of creative subjects. Some academics have briskly asserted that the author is categorically dead. On the other hand, however, others have claimed quite the contrary. As such, an extraordinary number of researchers sustain that the (same) author has made a definite come-back. I will try to show that all debates surrounding the-death-and-return-of-the-author conundrum should readily be discarded since they are directly accountable for the conceptual deadlock we find ourselves in today. Consequently, my paper will focus on emphasizing new ways in which literary scholars could come to terms with what’s unfolding right in front of our eyes: a new regime of authoriality.
A review of Amy E. Robillard and Ron Fortune's (eds) Authorship Contested: Cultural Challenges to the Authentic Autonomous Author. New York, and London: Routledge, 2015. 214 pp. £100.
Il est clair que les études littéraires actuelles sont revenues au modèle épistémologique de la recherche quantitative. Cependant, la sociologie littéraire contemporaine n'est pas aussi homogène que le montre la littérature comparée de...
moreIl est clair que les études littéraires actuelles sont revenues au modèle épistémologique de la recherche quantitative. Cependant, la sociologie littéraire contemporaine n'est pas aussi homogène que le montre la littérature comparée de ces dernières années. Autrement dit, au-delà des tactiques associées à World Literature (distant reading, la théorie du système-monde, la République mondiale des lettres) l'espace intellectuel français offre toute une suite de nouvelles techniques et tactiques de lecture sociologique. Cet article explore précisément les limites de cette impasse, le but ultime étant de montrer qu'à travers le travail critique de Jérôme Meizoz, la sociologie littéraire post-bourdieusienne a avancé, depuis une vingtaine d'années, une nouvelle et véritable théorie de l'auctorialité.
Dacă unii cercetători susțin faptul că definiția ideii de autor n-a mai evoluat absolut deloc din momentul în care Barthes îi declarase inutilitatea, alții sunt convinși că ultimul mare moment din evoluția conceptului nu e altul decât cel...
moreDacă unii cercetători susțin faptul că definiția ideii de autor n-a mai evoluat absolut deloc din momentul în care Barthes îi declarase inutilitatea, alții sunt convinși că ultimul mare moment din evoluția conceptului nu e altul decât cel al întoarcerii auctoriale. Ceea ce înseamnă, în schimb, că ambele tabere ignoră, în fapt, dimensiunea actuală a noțiunii. Lucrarea de față trece în revistă accepțiunile curente ale ideii de autor, așa cum apar ele într-o serie întreagă de enciclopedii, dicționare, istorii ori monografii.
Există două tipuri de reacții în fața "morții autorului". E vorba, pe de-o parte, de cele care pur și simplu prelungesc teoria dispariției subiectului creator și, pe de alta, de cele care o contracarează. Cei care ignoră însă relevanța și...
moreExistă două tipuri de reacții în fața "morții autorului". E vorba, pe de-o parte, de cele care pur și simplu prelungesc teoria dispariției subiectului creator și, pe de alta, de cele care o contracarează. Cei care ignoră însă relevanța și implicațiile ideilor legate de numele unor Barthes și Foucault întrețin o iluzie naivă. E limpede că nu ne mai putem întoarce la definiția romantic-liberală a autorului, cum la fel de clar e, în același timp, că fenomene precum literatura digitală sau cea transnațională, ca să numesc doar două dintre cele mai aprig dezbătute subiecte la ora actuală în studiile literare, ne obligă să depășim, totuși, etapa deja clasicizată a studiilor literare anti-umaniste.
While some researchers argue that the concept of authorship hasn’t evolved since Barthes declared its futility (in the late 60s), others seem convinced that the last great moment of authorship is represented by none other than the return...
moreWhile some researchers argue that the concept of authorship hasn’t evolved since Barthes declared its futility (in the late 60s), others seem convinced that the last great moment of authorship is represented by none other than the return of the author (in the early 90s). This indicates, instead, that both sides of the debate are, in fact, completely uninformed when it comes to contemporary theoretical advancements. This paper maps out current definitions of authoriality.
Keywords: the death of the author, the return of the author, authorship contested, travelling concepts, range-concepts
In current debates of authorship, a somewhat controversial issue has surprisingly been the centuries-old argument surrounding the status of creative subjects. Some academics have briskly asserted that the author is categorically dead. On...
moreIn current debates of authorship, a somewhat controversial issue has surprisingly been the centuries-old argument surrounding the status of creative subjects. Some academics have briskly asserted that the author is categorically dead. On the other hand, however, others have claimed quite the contrary. As such, an extraordinary number of researchers sustain that the (same) author has made a definite come-back. I will try to show that all debates surrounding the-death-and-return-of-the-author conundrum should readily be discarded since they are directly accountable for the conceptual deadlock we find ourselves in today. Consequently, my paper will focus on emphasizing new ways in which literary scholars could come to terms with what’s unfolding right in front of our eyes: a new regime of authoriality.
În siajul maeștrilor grupați sub eticheta ricoeuriană a "hermeneuticii suspicioase", o serie întreagă de gânditori începuseră să demoleze absolut toate presupozițiile tradiției filosofice occidentale. Bineînțeles că nici subiectul, nici...
moreÎn siajul maeștrilor grupați sub eticheta ricoeuriană a "hermeneuticii suspicioase", o serie întreagă de gânditori începuseră să demoleze absolut toate presupozițiile tradiției filosofice occidentale. Bineînțeles că nici subiectul, nici autorul nu ieșiseră nevătămați din această altercație. De altfel, niciuna dintre celelalte categorii principale ale tradiției idealist-metafizice nu suportaseră mai multă critică decât aceea la care fusese supusă ideea de subiect. Articolul își propune circumscrierea naturii controversate a ideii de subiect individual, așa cum a fost aceasta (re)definită în urma atacurilor lansate, în cea de-a doua jumătate a veacului trecut, asupra întregii tradiții umaniste.
For quite a while now, authorship studies seem to have been stuck in what might be called 90s nostalgia—something which the academic community typically refers to as the return of the author.1 I call this phrase (or phase, if you will)...
moreFor quite a while now, authorship studies seem to have been stuck in what might be called 90s nostalgia—something which the academic community typically refers to as the return of the author.1 I call this phrase (or phase, if you will) ‘nostalgic’ because part of its appeal still lies in the acknowledgement that there used to be a time when the author had completely vanished from the face of the literary earth, as it were. In April 2019, I travelled to Durham to give a paper at a conference expounding on the same subject—‘The Return of the Author’.
Authorship Studies and Romanticism. In recent debates about Romantic authorship, scholars seem to be dived on the question of creative subjectivity. As the death and return of the author conundrum rightfully demonstrates, theoretical...
moreAuthorship Studies and Romanticism. In recent debates about Romantic authorship, scholars seem to be dived on the question of creative subjectivity. As the death and return of the author conundrum rightfully demonstrates, theoretical discussions circle around the problem of authoriality. Indeed, literary studies are in desperate need of a new research methodology. In this paper, I will argue that, by adopting a new ecology of authorial ascension, the academic community will not only be able to decisively abandon 20th-century vocabularies (postmodern, poststructuralist, or postcolonial), but it will also gain insights into the workings of Romantic-period definitions of geniality.
Keywords: authorship, Romanticism, the ascension of the author, the ecology of knowledge.
În context aniversar, miza textului de față e una dublă: vom încerca, pe de o parte, să discutăm importanța înființării Catedrei de limba și literatura engleză în cadrul Universității din Cluj (1919) în raport cu stadiul actual al...
moreÎn context aniversar, miza textului de față e una dublă: vom încerca, pe de o parte, să discutăm importanța înființării Catedrei de limba și literatura engleză în cadrul Universității din Cluj (1919) în raport cu stadiul actual al cercetării literare, reconstruind, pe de alta, însemnătatea evenimentului în contextul epocii sale. Acest proces se va dovedi semnificativ nu doar pentru dezbaterile momentului, ci și pentru întreg procesul de revizuire a istoriografiei literare românești. Vom încerca să argumentăm, în final, că trecerea de la o înțelegere provincială la una universală a literaturii fusese facilitată nu doar de politicile culturale ale instituțiilor vremii, ci, mai ales, de gesturile singular-expansive ale profesorului clujean Petre Grimm.
It seems that 50 years after Roland Barthes published his famous essay concerning “The Death of the Author”, Michel Foucault’s equally notorious intervention, “What is an Author?”, remains the only significant (i.e. critical) reaction to...
moreIt seems that 50 years after Roland Barthes published his famous essay concerning “The Death of the Author”,
Michel Foucault’s equally notorious intervention, “What is an Author?”, remains the only significant (i.e. critical)
reaction to this day. This debate is extremely important because, on the one hand, it outlines the power struggles
between the old literary history and la nouvelle critique, while also prefiguring the paths of leaving French Theory
behind (the passage from structuralism to poststructuralism and beyond), on the other. Using Jérôme Meizoz’s
concept of posture, my intervention will examine how and why Foucault positioned himself as such in the cultural
sphere, while also looking at the strategies he engaged in order to show that authorship is not only a function of the
text, but a struggle of participants where both aesthetic and extra-literary criteria are equally involved.
After reviewing poststructuralist and pragmatic theories of translation, the paper goes on to consider the inefficiencies of examining "translatorship" in terms of invisibility and/or creative imprints. While the subversive powers of the...
moreAfter reviewing poststructuralist and pragmatic theories of translation, the paper goes on to consider the inefficiencies of examining "translatorship" in terms of invisibility and/or creative imprints. While the subversive powers of the translator are, indeed, something which scholars should always be mindful of, I will argue that academics should instead focus on the status of translation in the age of digital globalization. What is the relationship between the translator and the author in contemporary critical discourses? How can we define the role of the translator in the twenty-first century? Keywords: translation, authorship, translatorship, the expanded definition of the translator, prosumer; It lies in the eccentricities of our age that the shapes and sizes of authoriality should cover such broad-and one might say even contradictory-issues, such as anonymity and celebrity, on the one hand, and stylistics features and collective practices, on the other. Paradoxically, the recent evolution of authorship remains a critically under-explored terrain.
Theoretically speaking, authorship has (almost always) been excluded from narrative studies, although practical literary criticism never ceased in using this category. It is a well-known fact that Wayne C. Booth invented the term “implied...
moreTheoretically speaking, authorship has (almost always) been excluded from narrative studies, although practical literary criticism never ceased in using this category. It is a well-known fact that Wayne C. Booth invented the term “implied authorship” in his 1961 study called “The Rhetoric of Fiction”. Although the concept survived through several heated debates, it is, alas, no longer useful in analyzing literary texts. The present article shows that the only viable solution for narratology to further examine authorship issues is represented by the adoption of a couple of instruments (posture and ethos) from the new French sociology of literary production. Moreover, the study will also explain why the current status of creative subjects could be described through the metaphor of “the ascension of authorship”.
I would like to present a series of reflections on the subject of what literary studies have so far construed as the " theories of authorship " by placing these meditations in the general framework of a type of contemporary research...
moreI would like to present a series of reflections on the subject of what literary studies have so far construed as the " theories of authorship " by placing these meditations in the general framework of a type of contemporary research typically called " world literature ". These contributions resort to world-system analysis, sociological descriptions or translation studies, while totally disregarding the human level. In much the same vein, it could easily be said that, although post-structuralism engaged authorship in order to deconstruct it, the concept remains, until this day, a truly productive site of both inquiry and signification. Consequently, one wouldn't be in error by declaring that recent scholarship (especially in comparative studies) has actually failed in understanding the prospect of being an individual writer in the web of a global networked collectivity. Thus, I'm interested in exploring the ways in which the 21st century could reassess the notion of authorship. I will do so by way of presenting three types of methodological approaches. Moreover, I will be discussing an extremely pugnacious, yet revealing article signed by Rebecca Braun,
A Hermeneutical Reading of a Postmodern British Novel. Time and Narrative in David Lodge's " Thinks... ". The present paper investigates two aspects of a postmodern British novel. From a narratological perspective, we will examine the...
moreA Hermeneutical Reading of a Postmodern British Novel. Time and Narrative in David Lodge's " Thinks... ". The present paper investigates two aspects of a postmodern British novel. From a narratological perspective, we will examine the ways in which time-as a theme, on the one hand, and as a fictional issue, on the other-is constructed in David Lodge's " Thinks… ". Leaving behind post-structuralist instruments of analysis (deconstructive reading practices), the article will argue in favor of a more nuanced approach by showing the advantages of utilizing hermeneutical and phenomenological instruments in exploring postmodernist techniques of emplotment.