BETWEEN ANONYMITY AND AUTHORITY: RETHINKING AUTHORSHIP AND POWER IN THE HELP
Universitas Airlangga Surabaya
Nagoya University
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56943/jssh.v4i4.879This study examines the dynamics of authorship, anonymity, and power in Kathryn Stockett’s The Help (2009) and its 2011 film adaptation through the theoretical frameworks of Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault. Employing qualitative textual analysis, the research explores how authorial identity operates within narratives of racial oppression and how anonymity functions simultaneously as a form of protection and erasure. The findings reveal that while Barthes’ notion of the “death of the author” appears to liberate interpretive authority from the creator, Foucault’s concept of the author-function persists as a regulatory mechanism that governs discourse, authorship, and social recognition. In both novel and film, collective authorship emerges as an ideal yet remains undermined by structural hierarchies that privilege white voices. The adaptation’s shift in narrative perspective further demonstrates how medium and ideology shape the representation of authorship. Ultimately, the study concludes that authorship in The Help cannot be separated from power relations and continues to reflect broader questions of voice, legitimacy, and social inequality.
Keywords: Anonymity and Voice Author-Function Authorship and Power Narrative Adaptation Race and Textual Authority
Afifuddin, A., Sarwanto, S., & Murtana, I. N. (2023). Spoken Theatre Aceh of Pmtoh Peugah Haba Developed By Teungku H. Adnan: Spectacles Study. Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 39–53. https://doi.org/10.56943/jssh.v2i3.376
Barthes, R. (1977). Image Music Text. In The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism (Vol. 37, Issue 2). http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&btnG=Search&q=intitle:Image+Music+Text#0
Batubara, D. S., & Fotaleno, F. (2023). The Meaning of News Values for Content Creators on The Snack Video Platform. Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 26–38. https://doi.org/10.56943/jssh.v2i3.375
Buckley, G., Caulfield, T., & Becker, I. (2024). How might the GDPR evolve? A question of politics, pace and punishment. Computer Law & Security Review, 54, 106033. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2024.106033
Foucault, M. (1969). What is an Author. 1–13.
Foucault, M. (1995). Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. https://books.google.com/books/about/Discipline_and_Punish.html?hl=id&id=AVzuf-r22eoC
Given, L. (2008). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. SAGE Publications, Inc. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412963909
Hutcheon, L., & O’Flynn, S. (2013). A Theory of Adaptation. Routledge. https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Theory_of_Adaptation.html?hl=id&id=PRPReTQ2cYgC
Sovannara, T., Sovang, L., & Bunteng, L. (2023). The Factors Affecting Employee Retention. Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 67–93. https://doi.org/10.56943/jssh.v2i3.379
Stockett, K. (2009). The Help. Penguin Books. ttps://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/175104/the-help-by-kathryn-stockett/
Taylor, T. (2011). The Help [Film]. DreamWorks Pictures / Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Tsarapatsanis, D., & Aletras, N. (2021). On the Ethical Limits of Natural Language Processing on Legal Text. Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL-IJCNLP 2021, 3590–3599. https://doi.org/10.18653/V1/2021.FINDINGS-ACL.314
