Barthes, Roland "Death of the Author"

From RhetorClick

(Difference between revisions)
Jump to: navigation, search
 
(5 intermediate revisions not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
-
“Death of the Author” by [[Roland Barthes]] discusses and criticizes the emphasis literary critics place on the author while offering an alternative emphasis. The article claims that many have tried to break the idea that so much weight of discourse lies upon the authors. The examples include Mallarme’s attempt to suppress the author in poetics and Valery’s stress on linguistics and the text. Barthes claims that nothing is original because it all comes from already constructed dictionary from which all write. The dictionary, he also asserts, is just a “tissue of signs imitation that is lost, infinitely deferred.” Then, Barthes states that putting an author on the text limits it and potential interpretations. He further states that the existence of writing is “a text...made of multiple writings, drawn from many cultures and entering into mutual relations...” All of this multiplicity is thus focused in the readers. They are the ones that have to power to make a variety of different interpretations, emotions, and hold all the traces of text of which the text being read consists. The author can only understand and convey his/her own interpretation. Therefore, “the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author.”
+
“Death of the Author” by [[Roland Barthes]] discusses and criticizes the emphasis literary critics place on the author while offering an alternative emphasis. The article cites those who have tried to break with traditional criticism practices, such as Mallarme’s attempt to suppress the author in poetics and Valery’s stress on linguistics and the text. Barthes proposes that criticism placing the author at the center of originality and creation are false because words and concepts are inherited, and thus unable to be created by the individual; instead, the author only exerts power in organization. The words and concepts used by humanity exist in culturally specific dictionaries, which he describes as a “tissue of signs imitation that is lost, infinitely deferred.” For Barthes, “A text is not a line of words releasing a single ‘theological’ meaning (the ‘message’ of the Author-God), but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash” (5). Ultimately, Barthes claims the author's identity limits text and its potential interpretations. Instead, the reader should be seen as the sole agent in interpretation since only he can aline the words on the page with his own understanding of reality. Barthes boldly states, “the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author.”
 +
 
 +
== Glossary Terms ==
 +
 
 +
The following key terms are defined in the [[Glossary]]: Death of the Author
 +
 
 +
== See Also ==
 +
*Foucault, Michel "What Is an Author?"
 +
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Barthes Roland Barthes Wikipedia]

Latest revision as of 02:43, 17 April 2012

“Death of the Author” by Roland Barthes discusses and criticizes the emphasis literary critics place on the author while offering an alternative emphasis. The article cites those who have tried to break with traditional criticism practices, such as Mallarme’s attempt to suppress the author in poetics and Valery’s stress on linguistics and the text. Barthes proposes that criticism placing the author at the center of originality and creation are false because words and concepts are inherited, and thus unable to be created by the individual; instead, the author only exerts power in organization. The words and concepts used by humanity exist in culturally specific dictionaries, which he describes as a “tissue of signs imitation that is lost, infinitely deferred.” For Barthes, “A text is not a line of words releasing a single ‘theological’ meaning (the ‘message’ of the Author-God), but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash” (5). Ultimately, Barthes claims the author's identity limits text and its potential interpretations. Instead, the reader should be seen as the sole agent in interpretation since only he can aline the words on the page with his own understanding of reality. Barthes boldly states, “the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author.”

Glossary Terms

The following key terms are defined in the Glossary: Death of the Author

See Also

Personal tools
Namespaces
Variants
Actions
Site Navigation
Wiki Help
Toolbox