Authorship, apparatus and ethics: the limits of unsubjectivation in writing

Abstract

This paper aims to offer a new reading of the notion of authorship in Michel Foucault, defined and discussed from three fundamental texts: The Archaeology of Knowledge, What is an author? and The Discourse Order. The hypothesis is that authorship can be read as an apparatus and, from this perspective, it may be questioned from the concept of resistance and ethical concern the so-called “final Foucault”. To defend this hypothesis, we resort to the first apparatus concept description and the concept of authorship in archaegenealogy and according to some commentators. Then draws up an argument between the apparatus of authorship and the possibilities of resistance and subjective creation, present in concepts like epimeleia heautou, criticism or unsubjectivation. Finally, it is suggested that the authorship can be read since after the politics order of a policy and a fight between the subject and apparatus.