What Is an Author—Now? Introduction

Introduction

Abstract

The introduction explores the status and significance of the concept of the author in con­temporary literary studies, taking as its point of departure the seminar What Is an Author—Now? held at the University of Southern Denmark in November 2024. Drawing on classical theories by Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault, I discuss how the author continues to play a central role in the dissemination, teaching, and research of literature—despite earlier attempts to abolish the author’s dominance—and how the question of authorship reemerges in new ways within contemporary culture. The introduction presents the contributions and outlines four current domains in which the question of the author unfolds today: artificial intelligence, identity politics, autobiographical literature, and the moral responsibility of the artist. In conclusion, I propose two new and complementary conceptions of the author: the Network Theory, which views the author as an emergent phenomenon shaped by material and symbolic circuits, and the Object Theory, which understands the author as a withdrawn, singular entity.