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Notions and functions of the author within the discipline of literary studies constitute the object of investigation in this thesis. In the first part, the history of literary research is investigated. What has been considered as suitable and reasonable notions and functions of the author in literary studies are described. Different well-known literary researchers and currents since Romanticism until the late 20^th Century have been used as examples of stand-points.

In the second part of the thesis, the attention is directed to a selection of analyses made on August Strindberg’s I havsbandet (By the Open Sea, 1890). In these analyses the argumentative practices concerning the author have been studied in more detail. Different notions and functions of the author are often used in the same analysis. Some reasons for this are presented. For example, the text is naturally an essential factor but the elements of the novel can be stressed in different ways. Theoretical perspectives in use can result in the author being described narrowly rather than rich in categories, a description which however is contested by other factors. Notions of the real author often affect the analysis. There seems to be an ambition to bring into line with each other the different notions of the author, for example by way of speaking of what is conscious for or intended by the author or not. However, an ambition for analytical wealth also seems to make the use of one or several notions of the author relevant to the analyses.