Death of the Author

[unspeakablehorror]

There's a common implication I've seen regarding Death of the Author that I feel disregards what it is at its core.  Death of the Author has nothing to do with the morality of the author or even how good or bad their own interpretation of  their work is.

Death of the Author is entirely about how the author's background and intentions are unnecessary to include in meaningful interpretation of a work.  It's about an interpretation that draws purely on the text of the work itself.  

Practicing death of the author neither does anything to let an author off the hook for their misdeeds as some critics of it seem to presume, nor does it somehow cleanse a work of any textual issues inherent in the work itself, as some who might claim to practice it seem to imply.  It's simply the idea that one's interpretation of a work doesn't need to consider the author's background or intent to provide meaningful insight into that work.

Comments

[osteophage]

Where are these people coming from that think like this?

[unspeakablehorror]

Tumblr! At least for me, since I still lurk on there. Though I doubt this mindset is restricted to that site. I don't feel comfortable singling anyone out, haha, but I do think there's a lot of discussion of Death of the Author that makes these assumptions, even if they don't outright state them.