"What Is an Author?" and "The Death of the Author"

Both deal with how the demise of the author allows for an active reader. I think that it is important to realize or understand that the death of the author doesn’t mean the physical ending of the person but rather the disappearance of the direct link between the author and his written work.One way in which the author dies is when he loses his voice leaving only the writing. The importance placed on the author is a relatively new idea, which combines the person with their work (Barthes 875).  

 
One problem with this lack of separation is that we feel that the meaning is tied to the person that created the work, not the language, and that the only way to understand something would be to know what the author meant or was trying to convey. This would make meaning singular. If there can be only one meaning then everyone should take the same thing away from the same work and have no reason to actively engage with the writing. When the author is relied on to create meaning then the reader does not have a role or a purpose in the reading.  Foucault talks about the attention that we should pay to the gaps the absence of the author creates gaps (906). He also talks about how the author is a person that comes with their own set of contexts that frames then and the work that they create. Barthes also makes a distinction between the Author and the author, claiming that the Author controls and dictates the meaning of a text while the author leaves room for reader interpretation and possible expansion.  In a way Barthes is advocating for the death of the Author not the author. I think that to Barthes the Author is the writing while the author writes.Foucault sees the author more of a symbol of power and authority that prohibits the reader from participating. The author dictates meaning therefore the reader has no reason to bring their own experience and context into the reading.  Barthes says, “we know that to give writing its future, it is necessary to overthrow the myth: the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author.”  I think that the death of the Author might be necessary but not the dead of the author. In the end I think that the interaction between the author, reader, and writing needs to be a conversation instead of something that is definite and finished. The reader brings with them a lifetime of experience that they can apply and connect to the work while at the same time understanding that the author writes under the same circumstances. It is important to realize that there cannot be a singular meaning through the author or through language itself because every individual is different.