Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in English and Writing Studies

Department

English

First Reader/Committee Chair

Luck, Chad

Abstract

This project is a contribution to debates on authorship, expanding Foucault’s theorization of the author as a function of discourse into the field of creative production by proposing my theory of the publisher-function. Here, I highlight the role of the publisher in shaping literary discourse using avant-garde publishing house Semiotext(e). I analyze two experimental publications to illustrate how this publisher’s role in editing and curating their booklist—or, as I propose we call it, their oeuvre—compounds with the fact of publication to create a new kind of authorial role. This is done through emphasizing the paratexts, elements of design, and literary experimentation that constitute a motif that constructs the identity of the publishing-entity.

I begin by explaining the theoretical history that justifies the publisher-function, then define my contribution by explaining the methodology of this project, and situate the need for this theory within our field. I analyze two publications within the Semiotext(e) oeuvre, Kevin Killian’s Selected Amazon Reviews and I’m very into you: Correspondence 1995–1996, a collection of emails between McKenzie Wark and the late Kathy Acker. These publications are both posthumous, and I use them to illustrate the role of the publishing house and its relation to authorship through the publisher’s construction of the most powerful and most malleable literary icons: the dead author.

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