Notas sobre el problema autor y su función

Abstract

In this paper I will apply certain arguments of literary theory and cultural studies, including those attacked in the “Sokal case”, in order to explain the function of the category “author”. In particular, I will synthesize reflections of Barthes, Foucault, Bourdieu, Jameson and Vattimo, among others, to claim that “author” is a collective category and an ideologeme. I will add historical notes about the evolution of the concept of “author” through Burke’s works to demonstrate that the development of “author” is partially due to economic or commercial reasons: during the late stages of the Medieval Age and Renaissance, there was a move to register “social knowledge” as individual property.