Foucault - Ong

Ong raises an interesting concept:  that “the audience is a fiction” (12). The two ways an audience may be fictionalized are distinguished as “the writer must construct in his imagination… an audience,” and “a reader has to play the role in which the author has cast him (Ong 12). Agency and power may relate to these functions, pertaining to the authorization (no pun intended) and capability of the author and readership to perform these fictionalizations.

The effects of the dual fictionalization of an audience are examined hypothetically in reference to a diary (Ong 20). The quote “And to what self is he talking?” (Ong 20), correlates with Foucault’s concept of the author-function. It could be possible that the fictionalization of audiences is a result of the author-function. This would mean that both the readership and author are necessary for the author-function and the fictionalization of the audience. As described, the author-function “does not refer purely and simply to a real individual, since it can give rise simultaneously to several selves,” (Foucault 910).

Foucault, Michel. “What Is an Author?” The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends, Third Edition. Ed. David H. Richter. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2007. 904-914.

Ong, Walter J. “The Writer’s Audience Is Always a Fiction.” PMLA 90 (1975): 9-21.