The Death of the Author

'The death of the author' is the thesis that a text's meaning is not anchored in its author's intentions but is produced in the act of reading.

Definition

A cluster of arguments, central to poststructuralism, holding that the figure of the author should not govern the interpretation of a text, whose meaning is instead an effect of language, codes, and reading.

Scope

This topic covers Barthes's essay declaring the author dead and the reader born, Foucault's analysis of the 'author-function' as a historical and institutional construct, and the related New Critical case against the 'intentional fallacy'. It treats the consequences of these arguments for interpretation, authority, and the status of biography in criticism, and the objections raised by those who defend authorial intention.

Core questions

• Should an author's intentions determine the meaning of a text?
• What is gained, and what is lost, by 'removing' the author from interpretation?
• Is 'the author' a natural origin of meaning or a historical construct?
• How does displacing the author change the role of the reader?

Key theories

The death of the author

Barthes's argument that writing destroys every voice and origin, so that the unity of a text lies not in its author but in its destination, the reader, freeing the text from a single 'theological' meaning.

The author-function

Foucault's analysis of authorship not as a person but as a 'function' of discourse, varying historically and serving to classify, attribute, and limit the proliferation of meaning.

The intentional fallacy

Wimsatt and Beardsley's New Critical thesis that the author's intention is neither available nor desirable as a standard for judging the meaning or success of a literary work.

History

The New Critical attack on intention (Wimsatt and Beardsley, 1946) prefigured the more radical poststructuralist move. Barthes proclaimed the death of the author in 1967-1968, and Foucault responded in 1969 by historicizing authorship as a discursive function. The debate has continued through reception theory, hermeneutics, and renewed interest in authorship and the archive.

Debates

Intentionalism versus anti-intentionalism

Whether authorial intention is irrelevant to a text's meaning, as Barthes and the New Critics argued in different ways, or remains an indispensable constraint on valid interpretation, as defenders of intentionalism maintain.

Key figures

• Roland Barthes
• Michel Foucault
• W. K. Wimsatt
• Monroe Beardsley

Seminal works

• barthes1967
• foucault1969
• wimsattbeardsley1946

Frequently asked questions

Does 'the death of the author' mean authors do not matter?

It means that an author's intentions should not be treated as the source and limit of a text's meaning; the slogan concerns interpretive authority, not whether real authors exist or write.

How does Foucault differ from Barthes on the author?

Rather than simply removing the author, Foucault analyzes how the 'author-function' operates within discourse, asking what roles the category of author plays historically and institutionally.