Author, Author, o la celebración del ser y del autor (Parte I)

Abstract

In his constant defence of the aesthetic and formal worth of literary realism, David Lodge has always focused on two basic premises of the tradition of liberal humanism that have been heavily attacked by poststructuralism and deconstruction: the notion of the author as the unique and authenticating origin of the text and the idea of literature as communication. No work of art comes into being by accident, but is the result of the intentional choices and decisions of the author who wants to communicate something to the reader. In the last years Lodge has paid special attention to another aspect of the realistic tradition that has been undermined not only by the humanities but also by science in recent times: the idea of the person as an autonomous, individual self.