183-194

From “death of the author” to live performance art

Αισθητική - Φιλοσοφία της Τέχνης - Ιστορία της Τέχνης Aesthetics/Philosophy of Art - History of Art

• Ζήκα, Φαίη

The post-romantic dislocation of authority over the meaning of a text, or a work of art in general, from creator to receiver (reader, spectator, critic) culminates, in the second half of the 20th century, in a discussion about the “death of the author”. In the present paper I trace the general outlines of this discussion with the aim of showing how a specific form of visual art, performance art, can be seen as a reaction to it. First, I compare the French theory related to the “author’s death” and the Anglo-American critical stance known as the “intentional fallacy”, bringing out their common philosophical motivation. I then consider two attempts to maintain and understand the role of the author within this new context, Michel Foucault’s “author-function” and Alexander Nehamas’s “postulated author”. Although the above discussion originally applied to language and literature, it has been extended to other forms of art, especially the visual arts, where “loss” of the artist has been considered partly responsible for institutional hypertrophy. Performance art, which evolved on the edges between various arts and draws theoretical support from the “performative theory” of meaning and identity, is presented here as a challenge to the depreciation of the artist’s role.

• Arts
• Philosophy, Ethics and Religion

• Τέχνη
• Λογοτεχνία

Μια πρώτη μορφή του παρόντος κειμένου παρουσιάστηκε στο 11ο Πανελλήνιο Συνέδριο Φιλοσοφίας, «Η έννοια του υποκειμένου και οι μετασχηματισμοί της», Πανεπιστήμιο Πατρών, Οκτώβριος 2008