"What is an Author?"

In the article “What is an Author” written by Michel Foucault, he brought up the question “who can be and what is an author.”

In regards to the analytical question, while I was reading through this article I couldn’t help but to wonder why he felt the need to write on this topic. And what I believe to be the reason for writing this is basically to inform or even persuade the audience that everyone is an author.  

Foucault did an excellent job at relating the meaning of being an author to the purpose of their text. He uses different tools such as analysis, compare and contrasts, and metaphors. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of to the mentioning of death but I believe it has to do with the connection of the authors to their texts. He mentions that today’s authors are dead to their text and shows evidence of them in multiple excerpts throughout the article also believe that the examples he gave, created a sense of credibility for him (ethos). By relating back to other authors in history, Foucault gives a clear picture of what authors before have brought forth.

Although it was a little bit on the longer side it was a very detailed account of what he believes to be the true meaning of an author. Over all I believe that the title’s question was answered very thoroughly and the level of writing he demonstrated was only elevated more by his own establishment of ethos for his writing.