First, the notion of the work. It is said (and it is still a very familiar thesis) that the proper role of criticism is not to untangle the connection between the work and the author, nor to reconstruct a thought or an experience through the text. Rather, criticism must analyze the work in its structure, in its architecture, in its intrinsic form, and in the interaction of its internal relations.
— Michel Foucault “What is an Author?”
