what are the main concepts raised by the text in The Death of the author by Roland Barthes?

Question

What are the key concepts and the hierarchy of ideas mentioned in the essay of death of the author by Roland Barthes.

Answer 1

Barthes' essay is an entire tutoring session by itself and it might be better to plot out the hierarchy of which he speaks on a whiteboard. Barthes is mainly concerned with the obsession many literary critics have with the author - what's the author saying, what's the author's message, and how is the author speaking through the characters in their stories? However, Barthes argues that the author doesn't exist before the writing; instead, the author and the language they use in their text are born at the same time. Instead of reading Shakespeare as someone who lived centuries ago, Shakespeare exists here and now as we're reading his works in the 21st century. Thus, it's the reader who gives rise to the meaning of the words, not the author. Barthes also argues that linking an author to a text limits the amount of ways in which we can engage in the text, since we're focused on reading the text through the lens of the author, rather than through our current circumstances and society. The ultimate "death" of the author is how readers should be reading all literary works - without the author's interference and personal historical circumstances. Hope this short synopsis helps!