Rückkehr des Autors

Theoretical debate has declared the author obsolete. In practice, however, certain usages of the author concept are repeatedly demonstrated as being legitimate. This discrepancy suggests that theoretical reflection on the author fails to do justice to central forms of the scholarly approach to literature. The articles in this volume take both systematic and historical perspectives on this controversial term in an attempt to accurately reconstruct the history of the concept and to analyze the problem constellations generated by it in practice. The discussion also extends to non-literary media such as film, music, art, and hypertexts.