questions

Questions on the relationship of Author to Authorship

What is an author? What does it mean to be one? Is "author" even the right word for what we're talking about or is there a better term? What sort of power does this position have, what sort of *authority*, if any? How is such power best used? What does it mean to call oneself an author? Why would anyone do so? What sort of people desire to attain this position? What are their motives? Is authorship a democratic institution, available to all, or is it an elite post, attainable only by a few? If democratic, what value does it have to call oneself an author? If elite, what qualities must one have to become one of these few? Are these qualities obtainable by anyone or are they a "gift"? What do we mean when we say that we are authors? Why do we say it?


Questions on the relationship of Author to Text

What do authors do? How? How can they do it better, and how could one learn to do what authors do? What is the nature of the writing process? What qualities make for a more effective execution of that process? Exactly what sort of "control" does an author exercise over a text? Conversely, how does a text exercise control over an author? Do authors write texts or vice versa? Similarly, do authors *make* texts or vice versa? To what extent do other texts influence authors as their write their own? What can authors do to make a "good" text? A "better" text? Is there such a thing? How would one—how *does* an author—decide whether a text is "good" and how to go about making it "better"?


Questions on the relationship of Author to Reader

What are the parameters of this relationship? Since this relationship is mediated by a text, how does that mediation affect the nature of exchange between these parties? Who exercises power over whom? How? To what extent? How much of a reader's experience can an author reliably control or predict? What sorts of ethical decision and responsibilities does author owe to reader? Why is "reader" singular? Shouldn't we be talking about "readers" in the plural, and how does this plurality alter the way we think about this/(these) relationship(s)? What do readers read and why? How can they be best addressed by authors who want to achieve a particular end or effect?


Questions on the relationship of Author to World

What does it mean to be an author in this world? What do authors do? What sort of effect does this have on the world? What responsibilities does an author have to the world? To what extent does the world shape an author and his/her work? Is the author a free agent, solely responsible for his/her actions, or is the author a conduit for the world, which expresses itself through the author? Who gets to be an author anyway and how? What powers and institutions act as gatekeepers for this position and what is their agenda? How is the status of authorship related to identity and identity politics?


Questions on the relationship of Author to Language

Who is in charge here? Is there any author outside of language? Is language an author's material, like a painter's oil and canvass? Or is language an elusive force that cannot be fully controlled, one that even takes over the composing process at times? Can language refer to anything outside of itself? If so or if not, what implications does this have for the author's task? If we think of language as necessarily social and society as necessarily political, how ought the social and political nature of language inform our thinking about authors and authorship? How ought it to inform the way authors go about the act of writing?