Rasa Sutra

 

“Vibhavanubhava-vyabhicari samyogad-rasa-nispattih”

(The Rasa is accomplished as a result of the conjunction of Vibhāva, Anubhāva, and Vyābhicāribhāva, which appeals to the Sthāyibhāva which leads to the Rasa experience.)(Sethuraman-191) 

• Vibhāva: 

Vibhāva is the objective condition producing an emotion. They are stimuli, causes, or determinants of emotions. They are called vibhāva because they make emotions known to us in special way.The theoreticians who came after Bharata have divided Vibhāva into two types: 

Ālambana Vibhāva –

means a person or persons with reference to whom the emotion is manifested. 

For example, the father will feel tensed if his son is living careless life having no concern with future. Here the son is ālambanavibhāva because the tension and as a result anger arise in the father because of his son. 

Uddipana Vibhāva –

means the circumstances that have excited the emotion. 

In the situation, we have seen above, if there is any tension in father’s office then he would easily get angry to his son. Here the circumstances in his father’s office will be Uddipana Vibhāva. 

• Anubhāva: (Consequences)

Anubhāva means bodily expressions by which the emotions are expressed. Anubhāva are those effects, which are found on the characters consequent upon their emotional agitations. They are called anubhāva becausewhat is represented is made to be felt, experienced by us (reader or spectacle)

In the situation discussed above, father will get angry and he might slap his son or break something in anger. That slapping or breaking of something is Anubhāva. 

• Vyābhicāribhāva: 

Apart from dominant emotions, there are innumerable transient moods and mental states, which accompany them in any experience. They are known as vyabhicāri Bhava. Vyābhicāri means a series of diverse emotions that feed the dominant emotion. They do not have their independent status but permanent emotions cannot be projected in any poetry without them. 

Discouragement, Weakness, Apprehension, Envy, Intoxication, Weariness, indolence, Depression, Anxiety, Distraction, Recollection, Contentment, Shame, Inconstancy, Joy, Agitation, Stupor, Arrogance, Despair, Impatience, Sleep, Epilepsy, Dreaming, Awakening, Indignation, Dissimulation, Cruelty, Assurance, Sickness, Insanity, Death, Fright, Deliberation.

In the situation discussed above, looking at the anger of his father, son may feel different emotions like anxiety or fright, which lead him to the dominant emotion that is fear. 

• Sthāyibhāva: 

Sthāyibhāva is the basis for rasa experience. If anyone of it is missing in a person then he or she will not be able to experience the rasa corresponding to that particular Sthāyibhāva. That is why Bharata labels Sthāyibhāva as the king of all the other bhāva. Sthāyibhāva are the inborn gifts of men. They area called sthāyi because they always remain embedded in human organism. They exist in the form of an impression and are called into play simply by exciting causes and circumstances. Bharata anticipated that these eight permanent emotions are already there in each and every human being. 

Example of rasa realization: 

In the play Hayavadana by Girish Karnad, when Padmini narrates the scene of Kapila climbing the tree to fetch flowers for her,

“…what an ethereal shape! Such a broad back-like an ocean with muscles rippling across it-and then that small, feminine waist…”

Here, the attractive outlook of Kapila is the Vibhāva (Alambanavibhāva as Kapila is a human being), the garden and that tree on which Kapila climbs is also vibhāva (Uddipana as tree is non-human thing), Anubhāva is the opened eyes of Padmini constantly looking at Kapila’s body, which appeals to the dominant state of love which results into the realization of Sringāra rasa or the erotic sentiment.

Obstacles in Rasa Realization

Abhinav Gupta explained seven obstacles in the process of rasa realization. They are as under: 

Pratipattavayogyatāsambhāvanavirahah

Audience could not get the meaning sometimes because of the lack of imagination, which he calls Pratipattavayogyatāsambhāvanavirahah. While reading a text or watching the performance of drama if we donot try to imagine and just remain logical then we can never experience rasa. At some extent, it resembles Coleridge’s formula of ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ (BiographiaLiteraria) 

For example, while reading James and the Giant Peach, if reader will think logically, then he will not be able to imagine that giant peach, adventurous journey of Jack or his escape from the world of suffering and torture of his aunts. Then reader will not be able to realize the adbhutta rasa. 

Swagataparagatatvaniyēmānadesakālavisēsavesah

The presence of certain individualistic or distinctive features of time and place, which enable the sahrdaya to detach himself from the objects described. (Sethuraman-437)

For example, while describing the scene of court, there should be the properties which real court possess. If the writer is describing any event from past, the costumes, decoration, speech of characters etc. should likely to be of that particular era. If it is not so, the audience or the reader cannot realize the rasa. 

Nijasukādhivivasibhava

Nijasukādhivivasibhāva is undue assertion of self-regarding emotions, being under this spell of one’s own individual pleasure or pain. (Sethuraman-437) One cannot realize the rasa presiding to any particular text or any scene in the text or drama if one is deeply in his personal sorrow or joy.

For example, an aristocratic person living happily with his family might not realize the grief of Stephen Dedalus while reading Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 

Pratityupāyavaikalyam

The fourth obstacle is the absence of adequate means of immediate realization. (Sethuraman -438) If the setting of any novel or drama or short story is not proper, then the reader or spectacle cannot realize the rasa.

For example, the play Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, it is set in dark atmosphere, barren place, leafless tree. This kind of setting makes the drama believable to the audience and if it would have been set in any crowdie place like railway station, it might have lost it’s charm and could not appeal to the audience.   

Sphutawabhāvah

The fifth obstacle is lack of clearness or perspicuity.(Sethuraman-438) The dialogues used in drama should be appropriate. The language used for particular dialogues between different characters should be according to the characters’ background.

For example, if the servant in the home will speak highly embellished language and the owner of the house will speak rough language, or in court judge will use very rough type of language, then it would be very tough to believe. The audience will not realize the rasa in such conditions. 

Apradhānata

The sixth obstacle is the absence of some elements as the dominant factor. (Sethuraman-438) Through this obstacle,Abhinav Gupta talked about tone, main theme, or the main concern of any literary work. Somehow, through this discussion Abhinav Gupta anticipated Unity of Tone which later on discueesd in Western criticism. 

Samsayayogha

The seventh or last obstacle is doubt in general. (Sethuraman-438)

Process of Rasa Realization

 

• The level of senses 

At first, the poet observes the world through his five senses i.e. eye, ear, nose, tongue, and skin. He sees something through his eyesight, listen something, touches something, smells something, or testes something. He perceives the world as per his ideology, his likings, or disliking. For example, a poet like William Wordsworth watches the rainbow and creates the poem i.e. “My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky.” 

• The level of imagination 

When a poet feels or observes the world through his five senses, it leads him to imagine something extraordinary. Being common human being we also watch rainbow in the sky but it is his imagination which leads Wordsworth to compose such a literary work on it. It reminds us Coleridge’s concept of secondary imagination. 

• The emotional level 

Poet does not just observe the world, add the imagination, and create the poetry. He adds his emotions as well. His emotions for particular sight, event, objects, he adds into his work of art. 

• Rasa experience 

When a reader reads that poem, the vibhāva, anubhāva, and vyābhicāribhāva in the poem appeals to the dominant states or sthāyibhā within him that leads him to experience the rasa.

• Sādhāranikaran

Parallel to the poet, the reader also feels emotional as he connects his emotions with that of the emotions of a poet. Whatever he reads in the poem, it might have happened in his life or can happen in his life also. In a way, the poet narrates his own experiences but it is universal as at some or another way, the readers might have experienced or can experience in future the same which poet has experienced earlier. 

Example: 

The Flee by John Donne “It sucks me first and now sucks theeIn this flee our two bloods mingled be” (Donne)Five stages of rasa realization in it: 

1. Senses- biting of a flee (skin- touch) 
2. Imagination- mingling of blood of poet and beloved as the sexual experience or union 
3. Emotions- poet’s emotion for his beloved (love)
4. Rasa- sringāra rasa nispatti or erotic sentiment 
5. Sadharanikaran- what Donne has felt through this experience is not new, biting of a flea is a common phenomenon.

Short Introduction to Rasa Theory

Nātyashāstra by Bharata is the most detailed, and elaborate of all treatises on dramatic criticism and acting ever written in any language and is regarded as the oldest surviving text on stagecraft in the world. Bharata in his Nātyashāstra demonstrates every facet of Indian drama while covering areas like music, stage-design, make up, dance, and virtually every aspect of stagecraft. 

Though, the exact date and authorship of Nātyashāstra is difficult to be stated, based on the different scholars’ arguments, it is widely accepted that, it has been written during the period between 200 B. C. E. and 200 C. E. and it is attributed to Bharata. Kapila Vatsayan, a leading scholar of Indian classical dance, has argued that based on the unity of the text, and the many instances of coherent references to later chapters in the earlier text, composition is likely that of a single person and that is most probably Bharata. 

Natyashastra is a text written in Sanskrit, consists of 6000 verses, 35 or 36 chapters. Some passages are written in prose form also. The text is in a form of a loose dialogue between Bharata and a number of munis who approach him, asking about Nātyaveda. The answer to this question comprises the rest of the book. Nātyashāstra is considered as fifth Veda.

In Nātyashāstra, Bharat has discussed about Rasa in Chapter 6, 7, 15, and 16. Let us discuss the theory of Rasa given by Bharata in detail. 

Concept of Rasa:

It is an Indian concept of aesthetic flavor, an essential component of any work of visual, auditory, or literary art that can only be suggested or experienced not described. It is a kind of contemplative abstraction in which the inwardness of human feeling suffuses the surrounding world of embodied forms.

Thus, it can be said that rasa is the aesthetic feeling that is created in the reader or spectator when he witnesses an effective presentation of the art. 

“Nahirasadhatekaschidarthapravartate”(Nothing operates other than rasa.) (Nātyasāstra)According to Bharata, rasa is the soul of poetry. It is meaningless if there is no rasa in any literary work. 

1. Sringāra rasa 

The Erotic statement or Sringāra rasa has its origin in the dominant state of love. It has two bases: (1) Union (sambhoga) and (2)Separation (vipralambha).When someone dressed up well and has attractive appearance, or the season of spring, or going to garden with beloved – such vibhāva results in experience (anubhāva) of the character to feel better, to get indulge in such movements, slight smile on face, blushing and that directly appeals to the dominant state of love which results in the realization of sringāra rasa.(Sethuraman-23-24)

2. Hāsya Rasa 

The Comic Sentiment or Hāsya rasa has its root in the dominant state of laughter. It can be created from comic statements, use of pun, different looks, etc. It can be shown on the stage with the consequents like widening of eyes, colour of the face, etc. This statement is of two types: (1) Self-centered- when a person himself laughs. (2) Centered in others- when he makes others laugh it.There are six varities of it: 

1. Slight smile (smita) 

2. Smile (hasit) 

3. Gentle laughter (vihasit) 

4. Laughter of ridicule (uphasit) 

5. Vulgar laughter (apahasit) 

6. Excessive laughter (atihasit) 

First two types (smita and hasit) belong to superior type of persons; next two types (vihasit and uphasit) belong to middling type of persons; and last two types (apahasit and atihasit) belong to inferior types of persons. (Sethuraman-25-26)

3. Karuna Rasa 

Pathetic sentiment or Karuna rasa arises from the dominant state of sorrow. It grows because of death of dear one, loss of wealth, failure, etc. It can be represented on stage by the consequences like crying, lamentation, change of colour, or loss of memory. (Sethuraman-27)

4. Rudra Rasa 

Rudra rasa or the furious sentiment has its origin in the dominant state of anger. This is created by determinants such as rape, abuse, or insult. Its actions are breaking something, fighting, slapping, drawing of blood, or such other deeds. Furious sentiment in its words, movements, and deeds is fearful and terrible. (Sethuraman-27-28) 

5. Vira Rasa 

The heroic sentiment or the Vira rasa has its origin in the dominant state of energy and it relates to the superior type of persons. It can be created by determinants like discipline, strength, dedication, presence of mind and such others. It is to be presented on the stage by the consequences like heroism, charity, firmness, etc. (Sethuraman-28-29)

6. Bhayankara Rasa 

The basis of terrible sentiment or Bhayankara rasa is the dominant state of fear. It arises in the darkness, battle, sight of ghosts, etc. It can be represented on the stage by the consequences like horripilation, trembling of hands and feet, change of colour, and such other consequences. (Sethuraman-29)

7. Bibhatsa Rasa 

The odious sentiment or Bibhatsa rasa originates from the dominant state of disgust. It is created by discussing or seeing harmful things, death by accident and bloodshed, etc. It is to be presented on the stage through consequences like vomiting, down of mouth, etc. (Sethuraman-30) 

8. Adbhuta Rasa 

The marvelous sentiment or Adbhuta rasa has its origin in the dominant state of astonishment. It can be created by determinants such as achievement of desired things or person, sight of heavenly things, pleasurable acts, etc. It can be represented on the stage by the consequences like tears of joy, widening of eyes, crying hāhāhā or Ohh My God! Etc. (Sethuraman-30) 

Blog

Earlier in education there was a black board method very popular among teachers and learners but with the development of Computer Assisted Language Learning CALL, the Place has been taken by Computer screens. In the second Part of Integrative CALL many Web 2.0 tools and techniques came into existence. One such useful tool for language learning is Blog. 

 What is a Blog? 

Blog is a website Containing a writer or a group of writers' own experiences, observations, opinions, etc. and often having images and links to other websites. 

Dictionary.com 

The word 'Blog' is a condensed version of weblog which is a term to explore websites to maintain the information from the blogger's Point of view. It is a web site that enables organizations or us to share ideas and information quickly. 

 

Blogs usually provide Commentary or information on a particular issue, event or topic. In some cases, blogs can be about personal experiences or events or even in a form of diary too. A Blog is usually maintained by a single Person  or a small group of contributors. Visitors to the blog can comment on  the entries made or respond to comments made by other visitors.

History of Blog

The term Weblog was coined by Barger  Jorn on 17th December 1997. The short form blog was coined by Peter Merholz in 1999. Blogger.com was coined by Evan Williams at Pyra Labs. He used blog both as a noun and  verb -To blog means to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog. 

Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan (Pyra Labs) launched Blogger.com in August 1993  was Purchased by Google in 2003.

Uses of Blog:

There are a variety of purposes to use a Blog. We can Connect with So many People and clients at once: they can also comment on Specific Posts. Blogs can facilitate individuals who have an unusual Perception of a subject to discuss it in their own words. 

 

Features of Blog :

• Create Posts :

Since the purpose of a blog is to be able to post the new text or information to the site frequently, creating a blog and to publish it is quite easy. 

• Multimedia and Pictures: 

Pretty much all blogs allow you to upload Pictures on blog posts. Some will also enable to upload video and audio too But to upload video, a huse space and costly data are needed So, it's advisable to put a link instead of uploading video. 

• Configure the Appearance and Layout: 

Blog Provides various tools i.e. theme, plugins, design, text editors, and many more options So that the appearance of a blog can be decided by the blogger as per his/her choice or what suits the particular field. 

 

• Moderate :

Different platforms on blogs provide varying degrees of spam protection and moderation features to weed out unwanted contributions or irrelevant comments. 

• Create Link: 

While writing blogs, writers can create a  link of a specific word or Phrase. So that a reader can open it and know more about the topic. 

• Blog Comments: 

Readers can make very good and constructive comments on blog posts. Blog Provides Comment box, in which readers can comment, it can be replied and through it reader connect to author and other readers as well. 

• Social Media Sharing:

Author can share his/her Blog Posts on Various Social Networking Sites, i.e. Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. And also readers can share blog posts. 

Platforms of Blog 

• Wix 
• Joomla 
• WordPress 
• Yola 
• HubPages 
• Contentful 
• Jekyll 
• Tumblr 
• Medium 
• Blogger 

Types of Blog: 

1. Personal Blog 
2. Micro Blogging 
3. Blogging Communities 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Blog: 

Advantages:

• Blogs help to create connections between students and teachers and with Parents well.
• Blogs are helpful to improve Students' reading and writing skills. 
• Blogs also develop Іст Skills of Students. 
• Collaborative blogs Support team work and group learning.  
• The use of blogs Prepares students for the current market. It creates students identity not limited to his/her classroom but infront of global education world. 
• Blogs  are helpful to learn various languages.
• Blogs are helpful to learn about different cultures of different People from various Places.
• Discussions in weblogs Promote higher levels of thinking because People can think before answering back.

Disadvantages

• With the use of blog Students can not improve Speaking Skills. 
• Access to the internet is needed to publish blogs and because of this students who come from rural areas can't work Properly because of some network issues. 

The Role of Culture in Orientalism

Introduction 

Edward Said was an American literary critic, post-colonial theorist, and political commentator. His book The Orientalism was published in 1978. It is considered to be his most influential work and has been translated into at least 36 languages. Critics called it, INAUGURATING THE POST-COLONIAL FIELD. 

"Orientalism revolutionised the study of the Middle East and helped to create and shaped entire new fields of study"

Orientalism and Culture 

Orientalism is a Discourse about the orient associated with the military and economic domination of the orient by Europe. 

There are two terms: 

1. The Orient: the East 
2. The Occident: the west 

Orientalism is directly connected with the history of post-colonial countries. It is the study of a debate with historians and scholars. It is indeed the exaggeration of differences about the Western superiority and the analytical models of perceiving the orient world. It is the source of the inaccurate cultural representation that form the foundations of Western thought. There are three aspects of Orientalism in this manner: 

1. Orientalism is a particular way of thinking that contrasts the orient and accidents. 
2. Orientalism is an academic discipline. 
3. Orientalism is a corporate institution for dealing with the orient. 

Reflection on Literature

The way Western people represent Indian culture or the Eastern culture is not what actually the Eastern culture is. The differences seem to be on an extent level. One Poet rightly says, 

East is East and West is West, 

And never shall the twin meet. 

_Rudyard Kipling

The Ballad of East and West

Conclusion

Thus, The Orientalism by Edward Said shows how certain assumptions of the Western world lead to the misinterpretation of the cultural symbols of the Orient. 

Stanley Fish's theory Interpreting the Variorum

Introduction 

Stanley Fish is a leading exponent of American ‘Reader-response’ criticism. His book on Milton Surprised by Sin was subtitled, ‘The Reader in Paradise Lost’. Fish argues that the reader in the book is constantly lured into mistakes of interpretation by the ambiguities of Milton’s syntax, and thus compelled to recognize his own ‘fallen state’.

INTERPRETING THE VARIORUM

In the essay INTERPRETING THE VARIORUM Fish questions New Criticism’s efforts to locate literary meaning in the formal features of the text, rather than on the author’s intention or the reader’s response— “The intentional Fallacy” and “The Affective Fallacy”— and argues: Both authorial intention and formal features are produced by the interpretive assumptions and procedures the reader brings to the text. Authorial intention and formal features have no prior existence outside the reading experience. Fish’s arguments have affinities with the reception theory of Wolfgang Iser and with Derridean theories of discourse.

The essay has 3 parts. 

1) The case for reader-response analysis 

2) Undoing the case for reader-response analysis

3) Interpretive communities 

In the first part Fish presents a bad model of interpretation that had suppressed what was really happening. In the second part, Fish says that the notion of “really happening” is just one more interpretation. In the final section , Fish argues the need for interpretative communities. It is an explanation for the differences we see and the fact that the differences we see are not random or idiosyncratic but systematic and conventional.

The Reader 

Fish says that in the course of following the meaning of a text, the reader’s activities are at once ignored and devalued. They are ignored because the text is taken to be self sufficient— everything is in it—and they are devalued because when they are thought of at all, they are thought of as the disposable machinery of extraction.

Fish urges a procedure where the reader’s activities are at the centre of attention; where they are regarded not as leading to meaning but as having meaning. Reader’s activities include—

o The making and revising of assumptions 

o The rendering and regretting of judgements  

o The coming to and abandoning of conclusions

o The giving and withdrawal of approval 

o The specifying of causes 

o The asking of questions 

o The supplying of answers, the solving of puzzles 

Interpretive communities 

If interpretive acts are the source of forms rather than the other way round, why isn’t the case that readers are always performing the same acts or a sequence of random acts, and therefore creating the same forms or a random succession of forms? How, in short, does one explain these two ‘facts’ of reading?

1) The same reader will perform differently when reading two different texts.

2) Different readers will perform similarly when reading the same text. 

Interpretive strategies are not put into execution after reading; they are the shape of reading, and because they are the shape of reading, they give texts their shape, making them rather than, as it is usually assumed, arising from them. Interpretive communities are made up of those who share interpretive strategies not for reading but for writing texts, for constituting their properties and assigning their intentions. In other words, these strategies exist prior to the act of reading and therefore determine the shape of what is read rather than the other way around.

The case for reader-response analysis

The first two volumes of the Milton Variorum Commentary have appeared. Commentators have expressed different opinions on some of the points of disputes in the poems.

o What is the two handed engine in ‘Lycidas’?

o What is the meaning of Haemony in ‘Comus’? 

There are many other problems connected with the pronoun referents, lexical ambiguities, and punctuation. The editorial procedure always ends in the graceful throwing up of hands or in the recording of a disagreement between the two editors themselves. In short these are problems that apparently cannot be solved.

Fish says that these problems are not meant to be solved but to be experienced. Any attempt to determine which of a number of readings is correct will necessarily fail. Fish tries to solve the problems in some of the sonnets. He takes three sonnets of Milton.

Twentieth sonnet:- “Lawrence of Virtuous father Virtuous son”. The poet invites a friend to join him in some of the pleasures. It is a neat repast intermixed with wine, conversation and song, a respite from all hard work because outside the earth is frozen. But the problem is in the last two lines:

“He who those delights can judge, and spare To interpose them oft is not unwise”. 

The focus is on the word ‘spare’. Two interpretations are possible—‘leave time for’ and ‘refrain from’. In one reading the ‘delights’ are recommended. He who can leave time for them is not unwise. In the other, they are the subjects of a warning—he who knows when to refrain from them is not unwise. Two critics A.S.P. Woodhouse and Douglas Bush express opposing views on the meaning of ‘spare’. Bush reviews the evidence marshalled by Woodhouse, but draws the exactly opposite conclusion.

Conclusion 

Thus, Stanley Fish elaborates the concept of reader and the interpretive communities of readers in his work Interpreting Variorum. He enlighten the relationship among author, text, reader and the interpretive communities of readers. 

What is an Author? @Michael Foucault

Michel Foucault is not a Freudian, Marxist, Socialist, Structuralist or a Literary Theorist but a post-structuralist thinker. However, he draws on ideas and assumptions from them.

His Works

Mental Illness and Psychology 

Madness and Civilization 

The Birth of the Clinic 

The Order of Things 

According to him, his primary concern is not to analyze the concept of authors throughout the ages but to show their relationship with the text. He tries to figure out how a text points out to a figure who is outside and proceeds with it. His What is an Author? was originally a lecture he had delivered in 1969 at College de France on 22nd February 1969. It talks about the relationship between author, text, and reader. It was a response to Ronald Barth's The Death of the Author (1967) 

“What Matter Who is Speaking” -Samuel Beckett

This statement creates an indifference between author and text i.e. an author has no role in a text. According to Foucault, it is unethical because it has been adopted very much but not applied fully. However, as a principal, it dominates our writing as we focus on finished work only and not in the drafts or those which are not included. 

• Today’s writings talk about internity of text and have thus freed from expression. However, it is not confined. 

• We also look for exterior deployed. Writing employees testing its limits of regularity and reversing orders. 

• It subverts, accepts, manipulates breaks its order and moves ahead. 

• Exalted emotions are not the base of writing though they compose it. Rather in today’s writing subject disappears. 

It is a kinship between writing and death that gives birth to the author. (Thus it contradicts with Barthe’s statement, “Author is dead, the reader is born.” 

Greek heroes die soon but become immortal. In Arabian Nights too, the author desires to remain immortal. So the immorality of the author and hero were an important part of older texts. They made the author important On the other hand, contemporary writings are linked to the extent of sacrificing the life. Today there is no representation of self. The text rather kills the author. In order to know the author, we will have to understand the singularity of his absence and his link to death. The absence of the author leads to the genuine possibility of change. Unlike Greek plays, there is no hero in today’s writing. 

  

Authors Name and Proper Name

According to Michael Foucault, the author’s name is a designation whereas the proper name is a description that tells about his ideas about nature and other things. It should be noted that the author’s name and the proper name are different. e.g. if we come to know that the grave of Shakespeare does not belong to him, it will not have any impact on Shakespeare. On the other hand, if we come to know that The Tempest was not written by Shakespeare, it will definitely have an impact on our views regarding Shakespeare. 

The Functions of Author 

1. The author is a part of a legal system. Initially, there was the concept of sacred and unsacred (when religion was dominant) texts. The text which was in accordance with the interest of dominant religious ideology was considered to be sacred while the others were unsacred. However, after the 18th century, the concept of legalizing the author came into existence and the author’s name became an important part of the texts. e.g. Today we can’t copy a book legally. We have to seek permission from the respective authors. 

2. Author’s function is not universal. It differs from discipline to discipline i.e. from subject to subject and from time to time. In earlier times the author’s name was not required in the literary works as they included moral stories that represented the societies interest and thus were acceptable whereas the scientific works were required to be associated to author’s name in order to authenticate them. However, after the 18th century, there was a complete shift. The literary texts were required to be associated with their authors and on the other hand, scientific texts were not required to be associated with them. e.g. We have to remember who wrote The Tempestbut not the one the one who gave a Mathematical Equation. 

3. Author’s function does not refer to a single individual but gives rise to multiple selves and a series of subjective position. For example, Marx or Freud writings are not just their own writings but also about how one particular text that they produced had the power to produce other texts and discourses or perhaps the entire paradigm of knowledge, radically new form of thinking, a new system of thought into being. 

4. Author’s function is not formed spontaneously. Rather he is constructed. Saint Jerome gave four criteria for this author’s function.

• Author’s name functions as a label of a certain standard level of quality. Those texts which do not meet this quality are eliminated. e.g. drafts. 

• Those texts which contradict the author’s ideas are eliminated. 

• Those texts which are against the writing style of the author are eliminated. 

• The events that happened after the death of the author are also eliminated.

Michel Foucault believed that there could be more authors function as well. According to him. 

• An author as the centre is constructed to establish a unified meaning from text. So the text itself is meaning. 

• An author can be displaced from the text but cannot be removed completely. 

• A text needs to be related to the larger group of texts or discourses. They cannot be studied in isolation. 

• The author is an ideological figure.

 Types of Authors

According to Michel Foucault, there are two types of authors: 

1) Transdiscursive: They are the fathers. e.g. Aristotle, Homer etc. 

2) Founder of Discursivity: Those who resolve complex expressions into simpler or more basic ones. e.g. 19th century Europeans.

 Foucault and Barthes 

 

• Barthes criticises author but Foucault problematizes him. 

• Barthes creates binaries (e.g. author vs reader) but Foucault considers the author as the construct of the reader. 

• Barthes philosophy is limited to the idea of literature and literary criticism whereas Foucault succeeds in extending problem from imaginative literature to the domain of non-fictional writings.

Thus, in the essay What is an Author? , Michel Foucault elaborated the concept of author and instead of declaring the death of author after creating the text, he questions the role of author. He discusses the major functions of author in detail.