Barthes discusses the death of the author in an essay by the same name, and the idea is re-iterated by Foucault. The death is not a literal one, contrary to what the characters in this web seem to think, but a functional one. The fundamental question that must be asked is who, or what, is an author? Foucault broaches the question, and when one considers who the author of a work is, one must consider who else has contributed to a work. Should an editor get authorial credit? A printer? A publisher? What other writers contribute to the author's vision, and thus help to shape it?
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