Writing so as not to die? Foucault and writing as a practice of discontinuity

Abstract

At first glance, Foucault’s claim that writing is responsible for killing the author seems contradictory in light of the multiplication of his own authorial gestures throughout his career. This essay aims to dismantle this supposed paradox. To this end, it is argued that the death of the author can be understood as a writing practice aimed at the transformation of the self. By approaching the considerations developed in the 1969 lecture What is an Author? as a hinge articulating two different moments of Foucault’s thought, the study first seeks to highlight the notion of death through the relationship between limit and transgression, as developed in his 1960s reflections. Rather than an absolute and definitive end, death can subsequently be understood as a plurality of cuts—or discontinuities—that accompany life pari passu. This indicates ways to surpass the limits of certain discursive fields, as well as the multiple author and subject functions corresponding to them. Finally, focusing on Foucault’s reflections from the 1970s and 1980s, the relationship between writing and death is reaffirmed as a practice that brings the relationship with limits and discontinuities to the center of the subject's relationship with themselves. By dismantling the aforementioned paradox, it is hoped that this essay will establish a critical position in relation to the idea that, in Foucault's thought, discontinuity would be equivalent to the periodizations adopted in his major works, as well as to demonstrate that writing, as a practice of discontinuity, is an ethical principle that permeates his work from beginning to end.