Amanda- authorship vs. anonymity

I thought our talk in class about the increasing importance of authorship throughout history was really interesting. I learned that after the romantic period the name of the author become highly important in valuing the work, but wasn’t focused on as much prior to this time. Now that we have talked about it and gone through the history it makes sense that this would not have been a factor but I had never really thought about it before.

Before this the only individuals who were able to write or paint or compose important works were commissioned by the authority of the church so it was assumed to be accepted and believed by all. Technology and various forms of reformation on the role of the church in society has enabled many more people to express their varying opinions through art, hence the rise in importance of attaching a name to the work.

We also talked about the idea of a genius not really existing before this rise in authorship which was another aspect that I found very interesting. Looking at how we are today with our obsession with celebrities and knowing every little aspect of their lives it is crazy to think that art was created with a pen name or no name at all attached to it.