The Implied Author: A Secular Excommunication

Abstract

Abstract This essay argues that the implied author (IA) is a construction by a reader who is seeking a god-like form of legitimation for his or her interpretation. Part one develops the analogy between the IA and God by zooming in on the work of Wayne Booth. Part two is more down to earth. A critical review of empirical, sociological and discursive approaches leads us to replace the IA with a dynamic author image produced by the reader in a continually changing process of negotiation involving the text, the context, and the author's self-presentation. The final part of the essay discusses Thomas Pynchon's V. to illustrate this concept of negotiation, which we offer as an alternative to the traditional idea of literature as communication.

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