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Death of the Author: A Misunderstood Term
I think Death of the Author is an often misunderstood term. It doesn't mean that a work is suddenly without context or meaning, or that any and every interpretation is equally valid. It means that you don't have to consider the author's interpretation of their work as the authoritative one. This means any and every interpretation that the author disagrees with is a Death of the Author interpretation. Death of the author doesn't mean every interpretation that disagrees with the author is equally good, or that some other particular random individual then becomes The Authority of the meaning of a work. It just means that the work is being interpreted in a way the author would not agree with.
So while yes, an interpretation that reads an ideology in a work that aligns with their beliefs and not the author's is Death of the Author, so too is an interpretation that reads the ideology in the work in a more negative way than the author would. So, for example, if a person thinks a work is deeply racist, and the author thinks it's not, that's a Death of the Author interpretation too. In both cases, the reader is asserting that the author's intentions and reading of their work does not take special precedence over the interpretation of other people.
A repudiation of Death of the Author interpretations rejects both of the preceding interpretations and values the author's interpretation as the final word. And this is why I am very much a Death of the Author sort of person, because I don't think authors get to have that final word, not when they may gesture towards things they observe real life well enough to depict them in an accurate way, but understand the dynamics of that reality so poorly that they fail to articulate their most basic implications.
So while yes, an interpretation that reads an ideology in a work that aligns with their beliefs and not the author's is Death of the Author, so too is an interpretation that reads the ideology in the work in a more negative way than the author would. So, for example, if a person thinks a work is deeply racist, and the author thinks it's not, that's a Death of the Author interpretation too. In both cases, the reader is asserting that the author's intentions and reading of their work does not take special precedence over the interpretation of other people.
A repudiation of Death of the Author interpretations rejects both of the preceding interpretations and values the author's interpretation as the final word. And this is why I am very much a Death of the Author sort of person, because I don't think authors get to have that final word, not when they may gesture towards things they observe real life well enough to depict them in an accurate way, but understand the dynamics of that reality so poorly that they fail to articulate their most basic implications.