The Author[’s] Remains: Foucault and the Demise of the “Author-Function”

At several points throughout his career, Foucault suggests that publishing texts without authors’ names attached would be a useful step towards dismantling what he calls the “author-function:” a social and political role structured according to the way discourse is treated and disseminated in a particular social setting. I discuss Foucault’s criticisms of the author-function in terms of its relationship to the political role of intellectuals, and I argue that the demise of this role cannot be achieved through the means of authorial anonymity, as Foucault suggests. Rather, it must be undermined from a position within this role itself.