7/22/2019 On (Death of the Author) by Roland Barthes
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On "Death of the Author" by Roland Barthes
Barthes attacks the idea of the author as the centre of the
work. Once the centre is
loose, i.e., the author is dead, meaning becomes free play. It
is the reader who will
interpret the work according to his own culture rewriting the
meaning of the text. Thus
the reader should focus on the language not the writer of the
text. He further declares
that once a work is published, the relation between the author
& the work is severed.
This idea is rather extreme. Yes, the reader can & usually
does give new meanings
to the author's text but sometimes we need to refer to the
author's background to
understand his language. If the reader doesn't understand the
writer's culture, there will
be a lost link in communication.
This doesn't mean that we stop at the cultural background of the
author for
meaning of the text, but rather we begin there & open new
meaning according to our
own cultural background & reading of the text. Thus, Barthes
should have called for a
partial death of the author, instead of the total severance of
the relation between the
author & the work.
