The Death Of The Author - 1194 Words

In the French theorist’s Roland Barthes’s essay, â€Å"The Death of the Author,† he explores that reading is done through a lens of the authors life. According the Dictionary.com, to read is to â€Å"comprehend the meaning of (written or printed matter) by mentally interpreting the characters or symbols of which it is composed.† Barthes argues that the reader spends to much time allowing the author’s identity to get in the way of comprehending the meaning of the ‘written or printed matter.’ He then goes on to say that reading is way more than just a means to use to judge the author. He proclaims that we stop thinking â€Å"the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the author† (257). In other words, he means the only way we can understand a work of writing is to disregard â€Å"the authors, his person, his life, his taste, his passions† (254) because the readers should not use these things in a bias when i nterpreting a piece of writing. He does not want the reader to be blinded by what the think of the author. Barthes says that we must disregard the essence of the author, I say we use it to further our interpretation of the piece of writing we are reading. While reading Barthes essay for the first time, I thought that what he said was obvious. I was saying to myself, â€Å"of course, I don’t care about the author life! I just care about what is written on this page.† I really did want to agree with Barthes, at first read, he made total sense. Ironically enough, while reading hisShow MoreRelatedDeath and the Author1733 Words   |  7 PagesWe all struggle with our own immortality, many authors use death to declare their thoughts and beliefs on what it feels like, and what happens during the process of death. Stories such as Dorothy Richardson’s â€Å"Death† and Katherine Anne Porter’s â€Å"The Jilting of Granny Weatherall†, use a stream of conscious narration to get across to the reader that death is different and one in the same for everyone. R ichardson and Porter use the stream of consciousness to add depth to their characters, and to tellRead MoreDeath of the Author864 Words   |  4 Pages‘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 theRead MoreEssay on Critique Of death Of The Author775 Words   |  4 Pagesquot;Death of the Authorquot; nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The title to the story quot;The Death of an Author,quot; by Roland Barthes, suggests this story may be a fictional novel about the story of an authors death. Perhaps one might pick it up, and skim the foreword in hopes that beneath the cover of this book there would be a mystery, a story of detectives, eye- witnesses, clues, and a puzzle for the reader to solve. Before I read this story, the title quot;The Death of an Authorquot;Read MoreThe Author of the Black Death: John Aberth Essay828 Words   |  4 PagesAuthor, John Aberth was born on July 6, 1963. He currently lives in Roxbury, Vermont and serves as an associate academic dean at Castleton State College. There he teaches several history class. He has also taught at many other colleges in Vermont, including the University of Vermont. 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To begin with I found my self-having difficulty reading the play. I immediately began writing off the play as another story ofRead Moreâ€Å"Because I could not stop for Death† and â€Å"Annabel Lee†: Similarities, Differences, and Their Authors1494 Words   |  6 Pageswords and sentences. This is the case, for example, of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem â€Å"Annabel Lee† and Emily Dickinson’s poem â€Å"Because I could not stop for Death.† Both poems focus on the same theme of death, but while Poe’s poem reflects that death is an atrocious event because of the suffering and struggle that it provokes, Dickinson’s poem reflects that death is humane and that it should not be feared as it is inevitable. The two poems have both similarities and differences, and the themes and characteristicsRead MorePersonification Of Death859 Words   |  4 Pagesof death is unknown to everyone. Death is eternal. A person cannot come back to tell the l iving about the death experience. Death is the one aspect of life that is guaranteed no matter what the circumstance. In the poem, â€Å"Because I could not stop for Death† by Emily Dickinson, she uses personification, symbols and metaphors to portray death as a person. In the poem, â€Å"Because I could not stop for Death†, Emily Dickinson personifies Death. In the first line, â€Å"Because I could not stop for Death†, theRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Everyman, The Summoning Of Everyman1378 Words   |  6 Pagesinterpretation. However, Death takes most of critical role (Goldhamer, 1973). Everyman is the main character but without Death, the play would lack its illuminative and illustrative nature. Nonetheless, the author depicts Death as the messenger of God, cruel judge as well as rescuer of humankind. According to the author, human kind is supposed to be answerable for the mistakes committed by Adam. Indeed, the bad deed raises the sins of Everyman Perception and treatment of Death The author of the play, notwithstanding