In talking about authorship, I thought Foucault’s argument was interesting in that the name of an author almost gives a “flavor” or significance to whatever text it is associated with. For example, I remember reading a study where the a group was presented with poetry from two sources: more modern, local poets, and historical, famous poets, such as Dickinson. The authors names were removed from each of the poems, and the group was told to rate the poems based on how “good” they seemed. Surprisingly, the poems authored by little-known people were given better overall ratings than the poems authored by a well-known source. A few people even thought the poems authored by the more famous people were “bad.” It’s interesting to see how the name of an author can so influence people’s ideas of their work – if the same work, or poem, was published by, say, myself, and Emily Dickinson, her poem would be the newest sensation, while mine would simply be sitting in some obscure literary magazine, never to be read by the masses. An author’s name is indeed a powerful thing.
That’s a great point about what Foucault called the “author function”. In the literary world, the “author function” provides beliefs and assumptions that truly govern the production, circulation and consumption of texts. It’s interesting to also think about the fact that before the 17th century literary texts would often be anonymous, whereas scientific texts had to be attached to a name. The names of the authors back then gave credibility to the scientific texts. It was a trusted source if it came from a source such as Pliny or Aristotle.
That’s an interesting experiment, discussing poems without having knowledge of their authors. I, for one, come to poems and other works with certain expectations when I am aware of the author of the work. At times, these expectations can be limiting, as it may have been in your experiment (the students may have shrugged off the poems written by their peers and praised the “famous” works without really applying a critical eye to them). Nonetheless, knowing the author of a work can also help one’s understanding of the work exponentially. The associations with a particular author can aid in one’s criticism or study of it that author’s works. I agree; an author is a very powerful thing.
I also agree that an author is a very powerful thing. As it is previously stated, knowing the author can help one to understand a work better. In one of my english classes we read a short story that was fairly vague. After learning a little bit about the author and becoming more familiar with their own life, I was able to examine the short story in more depth and make deeper connections that I would have otherwise missed. I think the experiment is really interesting and shows how we can be biased when we read something by a well known, or critically acclaimed author.
Indeed, those expectations and assumptions we ascribe to a work come in at least twofold, as I see it: For one, we recognize the individual talent of the author. Aristotle was born great; Poe was a natural genius; Dante had it going on. This assumes an incredibly individualized notion of genius, and a close tie between author as writer and his/her work. Secondly, there is the matter of how the text acts as a commentary on social constructs. We herald the author who exposes the evils of slavery or the big meat-packing plants (Douglass or Sinclair). I especially praise such authors who use literary devices to examine such issues. And since this close attention to language can only be done with the utmost deliberation by the writer, the author as a person is integral in the analysis of the work.
Authors of poems and books are brands just as Vera Bradley, Calvin Klein, etc. are brands of clothing and other material goods. Their names denote a certain style and previously attained level of quality. In this way, when readers and shoppers are inundated with books, poems, clothes, etc. they have a way to quickly sort and categorize products in order to make decisions about what to read and buy. We, as consumers, only have so much time to sort through information about products so an author’s brand is one way to narrow the scope of the search.