Death of the Author free essay sample

‘Death of the Author’ Analysis Roland Barthes is a French literary philosopher born in 1915. In one of his theories ‘Death of the author’ he argues that by â€Å"giving a text an author is to impose a limit on that text†. He claims that having knowledge of the author’s background and purpose for the text restricts the readers imaginative license to build their own interpretations, and that the author and text are completely unrelated. Barthes declares, The death of the author is the birth of the reader. Instead, he calls the author a ‘scriptor’, to draw away from the thinking that the author and his/her single experience is in control over the text. In this way, he makes a point that no writing is original, and is created based on the multiple cultures, societies, environments at that time. A scriptor would only put together past texts and experiences in a different way. We will write a custom essay sample on Death of the Author or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page But in saying this, Barthes discredits the author’s uniqueness and imagination in his own literature. I believe that to ‘give a text an author’ can affect or change the whole meaning behind the story; character, setting, theme etc for the better. Also, by introducing the author, the reader can begin to combine ideas about culture and place associated with the author’s background. This in turn extends the limitations to a text, and allows for more freedom, contrary to Barthes’s claim. However, the theory is both true and false at different levels of author exposure. Having just enough knowledge about the author will help readers in their understanding of the text and even reveal new ideas, while having too much author purpose forced onto a text causes readers to all share one interpretation. The theory is also dependant on who the author is and what the text is about. So in short; it is subjective. Barthes statement comes under subjection to the different categories of a text: poetry, fiction, non-fiction, history etc each can be argued for or against Barthes theory. Even the genres of a text – mystery, romance, humour, horror, with their different style of literary techniques created by the author could be argued for or against the theory. Barthes statement would be invalid for autobiographical writing, where the authors are one with the text, as they are writing about themselves. In poetry, the author is a significant part of the poem as most poetry is a reflection of the poets experiences through the use of metaphors and other poetic devices. To ignore this is to diffuse a poem of its deeper meaning and connections. We can use Full Moon and Little Frieda by Ted Hughes to argue against Barthes theory. Hughes wrote this poem about his daughter Frieda’s fascination with nature. The poem frames a specific scene somewhere in the country: A cool small evening shrunk to a dog bark and the clank of a bucket – ? And you listening. ? A spiders web, tense for the dews touch. A pail lifted, still and brimming – mirror ? To tempt a first star to a tremor. Cows are going home in the lane there, looping the hedges with their warm ? wreaths of breath ? A dark river of blood, many boulders, ? Balancing unspilled milk. ? Moon! you cry suddenly, Moon! Moon! The moon has stepped back like an artist gazing amazed at a work ? That points at him amazed. T he poem is fairly vague in terms of setting, and without knowledge of the author one would not know that Ted Hughes, his wife and two children (one named Frieda) moved to a cottage in Devon. It was there when he wrote Full Moon and Little Frieda after his wife Sylvia Plath committed suicide in 1956. With this knowledge, the reader can begin to picture the setting and environment at the time. It will give the reader a greater understanding of the poem, engaging in its deeper meanings with confidence, and not just making loose assumptions. Barthes argues that this will restrict the reader’s own imagination of the poem. However, this is clearly not the case with Full Moon and Little Frieda. Instead, new doors are open for further study from having knowledge about the poet. It would not limit the reader’s interpretation but will present unexplored ideas such as the ‘dark river of blood’ being the deep reddish body of the local Devon cattle. A reader might go into this poem with a flat and literal understanding of it without knowing about the author. â€Å"A dark river of blood, many boulders† could also allude to the death of Hughes wife and the struggles that Frieda would go through as she grows up. But to a reader with no knowledge of this he/she would not think twice about this important part of the poem. As with poetry and many other texts, all literature is created from the mind of the creator – the author and his past experiences and conventions. You cannot argue against this fact. Even Barthes himself confirms this â€Å"all writing draws on previous texts, norms, and conventions, and that these are the things to which we must turn to understand a text. † It is through the author that these conventions and thoughts are revealed to us.