Authorship As Alchemy

This book is an attempt to answer Michel Foucault's question, 'What is an author?' It examines the relationship between personal identity, the physical person of the writer, and the 'author' projected as a matter of public perception via the reception of written texts. It approaches this problem by analyzing the way Romantic writers play upon and subvert the 'author' position projected upon them in the public reception of their texts, and it sheds light on the use of anonyms and pseudonyms as strategies that subvert the emerging institution of authorship.