Resisting the author: JT LeRoy's fictional authorship

In the last decade, the interest in the relation between author and text, author and autobiography, seems to have grown. In my article, I use the story of the author JT LeRoy as a framework to analyse what this growing interest means for our understanding of the word "author." JT LeRoy’s work was considered to be autobiographical or, perhaps, autofictional. However, the authorship of LeRoy appeared to be based on a hoax; JT LeRoy proved to be a fictitious persona, made up by the writer Laura Albert. How does the unmasking of an author influence the reception of his/her work? And what does it teach us about the relation between reader and text, reader and author? In my article, I attempt to answer these questions, and, furthermore, I discuss how LeRoy’s mixed gender relates to the question of the dead male author and the hyped "constructed" female author.