Development of Author Theory in Literary Studies: Past and Present

Abstract

The relevance of the article is a comprehensive analysis of the problem of the historical development of the concept of «author» in literary studies as a multifaceted category of personality. Attention is drawn to the direction of development of the author's theory in literature in the periods of Romanticism, structuralism, formalism, poststructuralism and postmodernism, a comparative, expert analysis of the fundamental theoretical conclusions and basic principles of authoritative representatives of this period is carried out. In «neorealism», which brought a new impetus to literary criticism, over the same period of time in the USA, Europe, Russia and our country, the author's theory developed and interpreted in different ways. The logical connection of these theories with each other was weak and even had contradictions in some issues. In addition, the analysis reveals that the American-English «new criticism», the European-French «criticism of consciousness» and the Soviet classical paradigms have their own characteristics and differences. The consistency of А. Baitursynov's conclusions in relation to the author with the studies of other scientists in the world literature was analyzed. Modern trends in the development of the author's theory were also identified and an expert analysis of the works of scientists in this field was carried out. As the main components that make up the concept of «Author», the categories are defined – «the image of the author», «the position of the author», «the intention of the author», innovative ideas in this direction are analyzed. The authors of the article, relying on the historical pattern in the development and decline of scientific theories and literary schools, formulate that at present there is a «period of theoretical crisis» in science related to the author's theory.