Foucault states that it is important to define the function of the author within society, since we cannot define a text without defining its relationships with society. One of these relationships is the relationship between a discourse and a socially constructed author. "In short, it is a matter of depriving the subject (or its substitute) of its role as an originator, and of analyzing the subject as a variable and complex function of discourse." It is also important to focus on this relationship, rather than on just one aspect of it (whether it be the work or the author) since by focusing only on one side, the critic/reader limits the proliferation of signification within a discourse.