Loftwings and Demons

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.