The Death of the Author

In discussing Structuralism in class on Tuesday, we examined the various ways in which Structuralism and Formalism are similar. In particular, weooked at the similarities that exist between Structuralism and Formalism in their view of the author. Indeed, both of these schools of thought are not concerned with authorship, with Todorov never even mentioning authors in his essay and Roland Barthes declaring "the death of the author" in his essay.

In each of the schools of criticism we have examined this semester, I have been intrigued with the role of the author. While there were certainly great differences between Romanticism and the other criticisms we have studied in terms of their view of literature and reading, there does seem to be a consensus that the author is meaningless. I grant that on the surface the Romantics view of the author may seem strikingly different from that of the Structuralists or Formalists, but upon closer examination, I would argue that they may be similar than one may initially believe.

The Romantics believed that the author was a vessel of sorts, a channel between the spiritual and the human. In this way, the author is irrelevant to the overall success of the text - a piece of literature could be just as successful by a different "author." By the term author I mean another channel or agent in touch with the spiritual world of the origins of literature. This concept is an, in my opinion, an intriguing one. In the Romantics view, would the success of a piece of literature change were it interpreted by another agent? I believe they would say that it doesn't, so long as it accurately interprets or makes an impression of the spiritual.

In this way, the Romantics seem to have a similar view to authorship as the Structuralists or the Formalists. The author is pretty much irrelevant, and their intent is fairly meaningless. Literature is something beyond this human world, and the author is never as important as the spirituality of the text.

While I'm not sure that I have yet figured out my own view on the role of the author, I find the views of these critics intriguing, and in many ways, startling. It will be interesting to consider how my views might change as I engage with other forms of criticism throughout the rest of the semester.