The Death and Return of the Author

For the late twentieth century, the death of the author assumed a significance analogous to the death of God one hundred years previously. In this now classic study, Sen Burke both provides the first detailed explanation of anti-authorialism and shows how, even taken on its own terms, the attempt to abolish the author is philosophically untenable. Rather than developing a traditionally humanist defence, Burke effectively out-theorises theory through rigorous readings which demonstrate that the concept of the author remained profoundly active even and especially as its disappearance was being articulated. The question of the author, he argues, is not a question within theory but the question of theory.Building on a substantially revised second edition, Burke further explores the challenges faced by an authorial theory that is 'still to come'. Prompted by the responses to the passing of Jacques Derrida in 2004, he revisits the enigmatic borderlines between life and work, life and (authorial) death. Features of the third edition:A 5,000-word Preface which considers Derrida's legacy and the future of authorial theory Two new chapters which submit the biographical and autobiographical to independent theoretical scrutiny*A fully updated bibliography

“Thanks largely to Burke, 'Author Studies' is now legitimate in literary academia...truly brilliant.”

Writing in Education

Sean Burke worked in the Department of English Studies at the University of Durham for thirteen years. His academic publications include Authorship: From Plato to the Postmodern: A Reader (1995) and The Ethics of Writing: Authorship and Legacy in Plato and Nietzsche (2008). His first novel, Deadwater (2002) has been published in France as Au bout des docks (2007). He is currently researching a study of discursive ethics in Plato, Levinas and Derrida.

The Death and Return of the AuthorCriticism and Subjectivity in Barthes, Foucault and DerridaSean Burke'A magisterial study [that] demolishes the structuralist and deconstructive positions on authorship...The argument in my view is brilliantly original...a splendid book.'Alistair Fowler, University of Virginia'The author - killed in Paris, embalmed at Yale, mourned in Cambridge - makes a sly and spectral return in this marvellous book.'James Wood, The Guardian'The whole concept of the death of the author has been finally put to rest by Sean Burke.'Brian Vickers, Appropriating ShakespeareFor the late twentieth century, the death of the author assumed a significance analogous to the death of God one hundred years previously. In this now classic study, Se

For the late twentieth century, the death of the author assumed a significance analogous to the death of God one hundred years previously. In this now classic study, Sen Burke both provides the first detailed explanation of anti-authorialism and shows how, even taken on its own terms, the attempt to abolish the author is philosophically untenable. Rather than developing a traditionally humanist defence, Burke effectively out-theorises theory through rigorous readings which demonstrate that the concept of the author remained profoundly active even and especially as its disappearance was being articulated. The question of the author, he argues, is not a question within theory but the question of theory.Building on a substantially revised second edition, Burke further explores the challenges faced by an authorial theory that is 'still to come'. Prompted by the responses to the passing of Jacques Derrida in 2004, he revisits the enigmatic borderlines between life and work, life and (authorial) death. Features of the third edition:A 5,000-word Preface which considers Derrida's legacy and the future of authorial theory Two new chapters which submit the biographical and autobiographical to independent theoretical scrutiny*A fully updated bibliography

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