Authorial Commutation and the Problematic about the Unit “Author-Work” in the Comics

Abstract: This article aims to discuss the notion of Author and Work as correlates and their insertion into a problematic of unity between these notions, in a perspective based on Foucault (2008, 2009). From Maingueneau (2006) and Bourdieu (1996), the Comics are taken, in this article, as a relatively autonomous institution that engenders a field of activities, the Comics field, in which agents positioned as authors, mediators and readers act in the elaboration, sustentation and legitimation of the Author's names. The discussion about the Author-Work unit is based on the author's commutability present in the Comics. Author's commutation is the process by which comics works are produced by different authors, interchangeable in other works and with diverse roles, such as writer, artists, colorist, among others. The discussion points to the difficulties in defining the functioning of authorship (the author function) in the Comics due to the non-unity between Author and Work, characteristic of this institution.