Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Death of the Author
Today's discussion in class left me perhaps more puzzled than when I first read Roland Barthes' "Death of the Author." I was dreading answering any of the group questions in class, but most of all the first question (which of course then the one that I was assigned.) Our group focused mainly on the lost identity of the author through writing. Barthes says in one part of this piece "it is language which speaks, not the author." To an extent, this is correct; in some cases it is easy to get tangled in the words an forget where the author is coming from. However, this is not always the case. Take Jane Austin for example-some of her books are based off of her true love story. While I have never read any of her works, I think it would be exciting for me to remember where she is coming from, knowing that true love really does happen in real life. So in this case, the author is not forgotten.
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4 comments:
I agree with you about the author only being forgotten in certain cases. I think it has a lot to do with how well the author is known, or how well the story being told is known.
When I first read "Death of the Author" all the came to my head was "WHAT THE HECK?! I DON'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT I'M READING?". But then discussion in class helped a little.
I agree, I couldn't contribute much in class either about the article. But after listening to the group's idea it got better.
I also agree, it was a difficult essay to pick through. I thought the handout was helpful, as well as the group discussions. My group was pretty talkative, so that helped. I wish we could get a summary of the main argument, though. I think it would help us all.
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