In 'What is an Author?' and 'The Death of the Author' Michel Foucault and Roland Barthes make seminal contributions to literary theory.
In both The Death of the Author and What is an Author? – written by Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault respectively - the basic premise is the same: a literary text is defined on its own terms by its own language; literature cannot be read and decoded in relation to its author.
Where the problem begins is that Roland Barthes, in The Death of the Author states that “the birth of the reader must come at the cost of the death of the author”, yet What is an Author? has Michel Foucault deconstructing the myth of the author and authorship, and investigating the relationship between the author and the work.
In the respective essays, Foucault and Barthes draw the same conclusion – that applied authorship distorts and limits a text – but Barthes denies the existence of the author, whilst Foucault undermines the author’s influence and authority.
Read more at Suite101: Author Theory --The Work of Barthes and Foucault: What is the Position and Importance of the Author in Literature? | Suite101.com http://chris-woolfrey.suite101.com/author-theory-the-work-of-barthes-and-foucault-a82687#ixzz1sCel3HrX
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Author Theory --The Work of Barthes and Foucault 1
In 'What is an Author?' and 'The Death of the Author' Michel Foucault and Roland Barthes make seminal contributions to literary theory.
In both The Death of the Author and What is an Author? – written by Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault respectively - the basic premise is the same: a literary text is defined on its own terms by its own language; literature cannot be read and decoded in relation to its author.
Where the problem begins is that Roland Barthes, in The Death of the Author states that “the birth of the reader must come at the cost of the death of the author”, yet What is an Author? has Michel Foucault deconstructing the myth of the author and authorship, and investigating the relationship between the author and the work.
In the respective essays, Foucault and Barthes draw the same conclusion – that applied authorship distorts and limits a text – but Barthes denies the existence of the author, whilst Foucault undermines the author’s influence and authority.
Read more at Suite101: Author Theory --The Work of Barthes and Foucault: What is the Position and Importance of the Author in Literature? | Suite101.com http://chris-woolfrey.suite101.com/author-theory-the-work-of-barthes-and-foucault-a82687#ixzz1sCel3HrX
In both The Death of the Author and What is an Author? – written by Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault respectively - the basic premise is the same: a literary text is defined on its own terms by its own language; literature cannot be read and decoded in relation to its author.
Where the problem begins is that Roland Barthes, in The Death of the Author states that “the birth of the reader must come at the cost of the death of the author”, yet What is an Author? has Michel Foucault deconstructing the myth of the author and authorship, and investigating the relationship between the author and the work.
In the respective essays, Foucault and Barthes draw the same conclusion – that applied authorship distorts and limits a text – but Barthes denies the existence of the author, whilst Foucault undermines the author’s influence and authority.
Read more at Suite101: Author Theory --The Work of Barthes and Foucault: What is the Position and Importance of the Author in Literature? | Suite101.com http://chris-woolfrey.suite101.com/author-theory-the-work-of-barthes-and-foucault-a82687#ixzz1sCel3HrX
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