Has its sights set not just on humble author but on the concept of literature itself and even meaning. There is a slide then in the text conception from the mere association of text and author to the much fuller conception of a text as a classifiable work of a certain kind fulfilling a purpose, expressing a meaning and yielding a value. I suggest that the plausibility of the Historicist Thesis weakens as it progresses along this scale. The Death Thesis can be read either as a statement of fact or as wishful thinking. Both Barthes and Foucault waver on which it is.
Authors do have social and legal status.
Far from being the destruction of a voice of origin the successful performative relies crucially on the disposition and authority of the speaker.