This paper, in French, explores the theory of authorship behind the controversy surrounding Houellebecq's use of Wikipedia articles in his last novel, La Carte et le Territoire (2010). The alleged plagiarism participates in and is revelatory of an aesthetics of borrowing: from the narrative voice (borrowed from a fictional future posterity) and proverbial, trite speech to the works of art inside the novel (mere reproductions of other works). The notion of cliché, both linguistic (in the style) and artistic (in the plot), questions the very concept of originality of the work of art. Be it a reproduction of the world (mimesis) or of other productions (imitatio), its author's importance is consistently undermined, and the work acquires a full autonomy: a production of language speaking itself, instead of being spoken. The novel thus constructs a complete disappearance of the author, in keeping with theories built by Borges, Foucault or Baudrillard.