Ok, so here we go…
As I was strolling through the blogs of different academic blogs, I was trying to find something that directly related to authorship. While searching, and searching, I could not find too much that really caught my eye and made me think, “That’s Barthes!” Or, “That’s Foucault!” Then, I realized that there was something that occurred in many blogs, even our own theory and academy blog; bloggers having other authors post on their blogs.
Isn’t this interesting? Although we feel that our own blog is our own writing space, if we want, we can have another author write on our space. Why would we want this intrusion? Because if you know of someone that has an idea that you want to show people, it does not matter who writes it, as long as the idea gets out there. In our class blog,http://theoryandacademy.blogspot.com/ we had a guest lecture write a blog because Dr. M wanted us to hear his ideas on Marxism. Sure, she could have just paraphrased him, but what difference would it make, as long as the point got across to us, the readers?
Another blog that I found that did this was Bitch PhD, http://bitchphd.blogspot.com/. Some of her blogs are written referring to Bitch PhD as a third person, so we can only assume that someone else is writing that post. (Or, she just really enjoys writing in third person.) Yet in other posts, she feels the need to introduce herself and say, “Yes, it is me this time, no one else.” I found this especially interesting because of the way she felt that she needed to make sure that everyone knew she was the author. Where Dr. M basically “killed” herself as the author of her blog while letting someone else take over, Bitch PhD made herself become alive in the post. Part of me does not really know what to make of this discovery, but the other part of me wants to figure it out. What is the point of making it known that you are the author when trying to show people an idea? It is the idea that counts, not who has thought of the idea. After reading Barthes, I really get the idea that the language should be the one speaking and not some person.
ps- I couldn't figure out how to do the links and I think it is because that I have a mac. Any suggestions?
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1 comment:
This is a thoughtful post, Krisp.
One way to think about the death of the author is as a challenge to traditional voices of authority or positions of power. Such a challenge opens a space for different voices.
This is part of the reason I am having you blog in this class. By doing so, you have a say in your engagement with theory. I think Bitch Ph.D. invites guest bloggers (and recently, co-bloggers) onto her space, because she wants to allow for a plurality of voices to address the feminist issues on which her blog focuses.
I invite guest lecturers for similar reasons. I do not want to be the singular voice of authority in this class (as much as you want me to be!), because part of the project of this class--as well as the project of much critical theory--is thinking about how authority works.
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