Image of the Author

The image of the author is the concentrated embodiment of a work's essence, the organizing center that unites the whole system of linguistic and compositional means into an artistic whole; the writer's 'second self,' present in the text. The concept of the image of the author was developed by the linguist Viktor Vinogradov in his works on the language of imaginative literature, emphasizing that the image of the author is not the writer as a biographical person but the bearer, created within the work, of a single creative consciousness, attitude, and evaluation. The image of the author manifests in the selection of linguistic means, in the tone of narration, in the attitude toward what is depicted, and in the composition. A kindred concept, the 'implied author,' was introduced by Wayne Booth ('The Rhetoric of Fiction') — the image of the author reconstructed by the reader from the text itself, distinct from both the real author and the narrator. Distinguishing the real author, the implied author, and the narrator is an important analytical tool.