Temptation, Trash and Trust: The Authorship and Authority of Digital Texts

Abstract

This article considers the question of the authorship of digital texts and their use by learners and teachers in higher education. It draws on the work of Foucault, in particular how his concept of the ‘author function’ is applied by Poster to the authorships of the digital age. From this theoretical basis, the article goes on to consider some examples of text in digital space, looking at how, specifically, hypertext, email, wikis and blogs each re-articulate the author in different ways. In the final section of the article, interviews with teachers and students in higher education are analysed in terms of the discourses they use in describing digital text and its use within academia. The article shows how interviewees demonstrated significant resistance to digital texts and authorships within academic practice, generally viewing the texts of cyberspace as somehow subversive and other to the true academic project.

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