Death of the Author
“The Death of the Author” (French: La mort de l’auteur) is a 1967 essay by the French literary critic and theorist Roland Barthes (1915–1980). Barthes’ essay argues against traditional literary criticism’s practice of relying on the intentions and biography of an author to definitively explain the “ultimate meaning” of a text. Instead, the essay emphasizes the primacy of each individual reader’s interpretation of the work over any “definitive” meaning intended by the author, a process in which subtle or unnoticed characteristics may be drawn out for new insight. The essay’s first English-language publication was in the American journal Aspen, no. 5–6 in 1967; the French debut was in the magazine Manteia, no. 5 (1968). The essay later appeared in an anthology of Barthes’ essays, Image-Music-Text (1977), a book that also included his “From Work to Text”.
Postmodernism’s “Death of the Author” is a concept from Roland Barthes’ 1967 essay, asserting that a text’s meaning is created by the reader, not the author’s intended message. This idea shifts interpretation from an author-centric view to a reader-focused one, recognizing texts as a “tissue of citations” and a space where multiple, shifting meanings can arise from the reader’s subjective engagement.
- Reader-Response Criticism: Barthes’ essay promoted a shift from author-centric interpretation to reader-response criticism, where the reader actively constructs meaning.
- Author’s Diminished Role: The author is demystified, no longer possessing “God-like authority” or a singular, definitive voice. Instead, the author is seen as an instance of writing, not the sole source of meaning.
- Text as a “Tissue of Citations”: A text is viewed not as a single message but as a multi-dimensional space where various forms of writing, referencing other texts and contexts, are interwoven.
- Instability of Meaning: Because texts are a collection of interwoven references and language itself is inherently unstable, a single text can possess an “indefinite amount of interpretation”.
- Birth of the Reader: The death of the author is presented as the “birth of the reader,” empowering readers to create meaning and explore the text’s various dimensions.
Postmodern Context
Challenges to Authority: This concept aligns with postmodernism’s broader challenge to traditional authority, fixed meanings, and grand narratives.
Influence on Post-Structuralism: “The Death of the Author” significantly influenced post-structuralism and deconstruction, theories that further question the stability of meaning and the idea of a single, “true” interpretation.
AI responses may include mistakes.
[1] https://callie.zone/blog/death-of-the-author-comparison-between-literature-and-games
[3] https://calebwoodbridge.com/blog/christianity-postmodernism-6-death-of/