Altering Authorships: Absences and Presences of Authors in Contemporary Culture

This article serves as an introduction to the anthology devoted to the study of altering authorships in contemporary literature and culture. Drawing attention to the influence of Roland Barthes’s and Michel Foucault’s works on the author and authorship, the essay emphasises the importance of the context of both production and reception in determining the authority over and responsibility for the literary/cultural text. By altering authorships we mean various processes of diffusing authorial authority, on the one hand, and reassessing authorship for alternative authors, on the other. Conceptualised as authorial absences and authorial presences, the acts of questioning and transforming the practices of authorship and the process of (re)introducing alternative or marginalised authors discussed in the article testify to the continuing significance of the authorship debate. In this context, authorship can be approached as “a living absence” (Berensmeyer et al.), opening space for disruptions, dispersals, redefinitions, negotiations and reconciliations of authorial presences.