Roland Barthes s The Death of the Author essay provides a critique of the way writers and readers view a written or spoken piece. Throughout the piece Barthes makes the argument for writers to give up their right to the meaning of the words they write on a page. By the death of the author Barthes means separating the author from the work. It is critical to think of the work as unrelated to the author. In this essay, Barthes comments on the writer s connection to the text, the connection the readers make to the text and the words put on the page. To Barthes, all of these contribute to the death of the author. Barthes provides a clear need for authors to abandon their rights to explain the meanings of their piece; the focus is put on the reader and the interpretation of the text. Barthes evidence begins with focusing on the audience as the most important critic of any work. The readers are the audience that the author must ultimately inform or entertain. It is imperative that the readers see a separation between the author and the text. Barthes comments that the responsibility of interpretation rests solely on that of the readers. He writes, A text s unity lies not in its origin but in its destination (1325). By this Barthes claims that after publication the origin of the piece, the author, no longer has a right to explain the meaning; that is left up to the audience, the destination. Leaving a text open to interpretation allows the destination to be different for every reader. With the open interpretation, different readers are able to take away different important aspects of the piece. This allows for multiple views on the same text and therefore contrasting viewpoints on the same piece. Barthes also comments on the distinct separation that needs to be made between the author and the text. Readers should not assume that the main character in a novel or the speaker of a poem is the author. In the beginning of the essay, Barthes writes, Writing is the neutral,
composite, oblique space where our subject slips away, the negative where all identity is lost, starting with the very identity of the body writing (1322). Once the author has published his or her work, their ideas of the meaning of their piece no longer matters and it should be almost like the author is not connected to the text. The actual meaning of what he or she has written relies on the interpretation of the readers and that interpretation should not always be based on the writer s actual life. This distinct separation is necessary to the objective reading of a text. By making background information necessary the author creates a barrier between the readers and their piece. With this assertion, Barthes shows the responsibility the reader has to the success of an author. Barthes writes, No one, no person, says it: its source, its voice, is not the true place of the writing, which is reading (1325). If the readers find their own way of connecting to the text, then the author has reached a new audience. Barthes comments on the idea of linking the author to all of their works. He claims that what the author writes may not be saying only one thing. He argues that the reader is what essentially makes the meaning of the words and arguments. The audience should not have to research the author s life in order to understand the message of the writing. The readers are the people that circulate the material, so if the author makes it inaccessible to a group of people he will be unlikely to have success. This is the initial death of the author. This detachment is essential to creating the unique connection a person could have with a certain piece. By giving up the rights to their piece writers become open to critique as well as an interpretation from readers and critics. The writing is based on the reader s understanding of the piece and is highly dependent on the personal experience of the reader. Barthes writes, Thus is
revealed the total existence of writing; a text is made of multiple writings, drawn from many cultures and entering into mutual relations of dialogue, parody, contestation, but there is one place where this multiplicity is focused and that place is the reader, not, as was hitherto said, the author (1325). By this Barthes is commenting on the idea of a reader having their own experience affecting the way they are reading a certain piece. The different aspects that make up an entire writing or speech allows for different interpretations. Every sentence can mean something different to a person with different life experiences. A symbol, character or imagery could mean something completely divergent to a person based on a single event or person in their life. If the author was to provide readers with the meaning of a certain piece the reader would then be limited to that meaning. There would be nothing to interpret and therefore nothing to consider when reading. By not limiting the reader, the author once again creates his or her own death. There is no exact meaning to a certain passage which allows readers to have a more open attachment to the text. Without a strict meaning given, the readers are able to pin point the most important parts to them. The author does not need to dictate the meaning of a piece to have it understood by readers. If a reader is not limited, a new meaning could be brought to the piece that the author never thought about. By allowing readers to connect to a text in a way that is personal to themselves, the writer opens his piece to a new audience. Dissimilar people would find different parts of the piece meaningful and will connect to it in a way that is completely their own. The question becomes whether it is more important to convey the message exactly as the author wants it or to have the piece be more accessible and open to interpretation. This open interpretation brings about the
death of the author because it opens up the power to the reader and denies the power of the writer. This power is essential to the reader because they are the ultimate critic. A writer needs to allow for this transfer of power in order to have their work read and explained to a wider audience. A writer should be able to convey his or her main message to any audience, but allow specific people to take away what they choose. By denying a concrete interpretation an author allows this to happen. Barthes writes, Someone who understands each word in its duplicity and who in addition, hears the very deafness of the characters speaking in front of him- this someone being precisely the reader (1325). Regardless of personal experiences of a reader, a writer should be able to deliver his message to anyone. Readers should be able to interpret the same message; it is the job of the writer to make the most important message accessible to all. This also brings about the death of the author because each readers interpretation of the text could be majorly different from the what the author had in mind. Once a piece is published the author has no say on how it is taken. The critics and readers will judge and illuminate different parts of the text that the author never intended to draw focus. The writer cannot control how the text is interpreted, but he or she can control what is put into the text to be interpreted. For that reason, writers are the ones that are criticized based on what they put on the page to be read. Barthes writes, Classic criticism has never paid any attention to the reader; for it, the writer is the only person in literature (1326). The author provides the only part of a piece that can be criticized, the actual text. It is impossible for a critic to include every person s interpretation of the same writing, so it is important for critics to
evaluate what has been put on the page. Barthes also argues that the author does not know the full capacity of what they wrote and therefore their understanding of what they wrote is not final. What the author puts on the page is the most important aspect of a piece of writing. Through his or her words the author has guided the reader to an interpretation, but if these words are unclear the reader may not make that conclusion upon reading. Barthes writes, Yet this destination cannot any longer be personal: the reader is without history, biography, psychology; he is simply that someone who holds together in a single field all the traces by which the written text is constituted (1325). He is very clear in his statement, a reader should not need to know the author s history to understand what he is writing about. A writer could limit readers if he or she makes knowing background information necessary to understanding the text. Overall, Barthes indicates that a separation between an author and their work is necessary to obtain an objective critique. Barthes greatest strengths in his argument are his claims for the essential need for creating a clear detachment of the author from the text. He also equips his argument with valid reasons of why the reader must be the person to interpret the work. Throughout his essay, Barthes calls for the denial of concrete interpretation. By this he means that a writer should not dictate what the passage means as a whole. Barthes claims that should be left up to readers to make their own interpretations. Barthes claim are almost parallel to those of John Milton. Milton argued against the Licensing Act because he believed that the general public would determine what is read and what is not. This is much like the ideas Barthes brings to light in his essay, The Death of the Author. Barthes claims that the reader will determine the ultimate interpretation of a text, similarly Milton believed that through interpretation, readers should be able to deem whether it is
appropriate. This also leads to a lack of concrete explanation. Without a set understanding, the text becomes more ambiguous and relatable to different people. The main weakness in Barthes argument for the death of the author is clarification. If readers are interpreting a text in a way that is opposite of what author intended, the author loses the chance to correct the readers. Barthes fails to think about extremist that will purposefully misinterpret the meaning of the text. Also, Barthes does not provide as much evidence as he could against putting the writer in the place of the speaker or character. Often, writers put themselves into a character or speaker. However, Barthes writes that readers should not associate the writer with the piece, this could lead to a grave misunderstanding that simple background information could clarify. Barthes does an excellent job of defending the need for the death of the author. He provides solid reasoning for allowing readers to interpret the text in their own ways. His argument is summed up at the end of the essay, We know that to give writing its future, it is necessary to overthrow the myth; the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author (1326). In order to get the most out of a text it is necessary that the author is detached from the piece. Readers should be able to make their own interpretations about of the text and a clear meanings are not necessary. Barthes argument proves to be valid when looking at texts in a critical way, to show that only what has been put on the page can be criticized and interpreted.