The Death of the Author

Art 109A: Art since 1945 Westchester Community College Fall 2012 Dr. Melissa Hall

Viviana Ponton, Visual interpretation of the essay "The Death of the Author" by Roland Barthes. http://www.behance.net/gallery/Death-of-the-Author/3068723

Death of the Author The literary concept of the "death of the author" was explored by the French literary critic and cultural theorist Roland Barthes in the 1960's

French critic and philosopher Roland Barthes, c. 1960 Image source: http://telos.tv/blog/

Death of the Author He raised the question of where the meaning of a text comes from

Image source: http://bookblogs.ning.com/forum/topics/currently-reading-1?commentId=2071157%3AComment%3A21273

Death of the Author Is it in the text, or is it produced in the act of reading?

Image source: http://www.dundrummethodist.com/dev/?page_id=76

Death of the Author Traditionally, meaning was thought to reside within the text, expressing the original intention of the author

Image source: http://www.123rf.com/photo_5600413_william-shakespeare-s-hamlet-original-middle-english-text-from-the-first-folio-of-1623-with-stamp--s.html

Death of the Author Barthes argued that this method of criticism imposes limitations on the text

Image source: http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2012/07/25/all-the-worlds-a-stage-windsor-teen-to-raise-money-for-school-by-reciting-shakespeare/

“To give a text an Author is to impose a limit on that text, to furnish it with a final signified, to close the writing.” Roland Barthes, “Death of the Author”

Death of the Author Barthes argued that meaning is produced in the act of interpretation

“It is language which speaks, not the author.” Roland Barthes, Death of the Author

Image source: http://www.turnbacktogod.com/the-bible-on-one-page/

Death of the Author

“The essential meaning of a work depends on the impressions of the reader, rather than the "passions" or "tastes" of the writer; "a text's unity lies not in its origins," or its creator, "but in its destination," or its audience.” “Death of the Author,” Wikipedia

Viviana Ponton, Visual interpretation of the essay "The Death of the Author" by Roland Barthes. http://www.behance.net/gallery/Death-of-the-Author/3068723

Death of the Author Barthes’ ideas are similar to those expressed by Marcel Duchamp in “The Creative Act”

John D. Schiff, Marcel Duchamp, 1958/1959 Image source: http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/11/view/2045/designboom-x-mas-picks-from-art-and-design-auctions-kunsthaus-lempertz.html

“All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualification and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.” Marcel Duchamp, “The Creative Act,” 1957

Death of the Author In literary theory, the “death of the author” was accompanied by the “birth of the reader,” and a new emphasis upon reading and interpretation as a creative act of making meaning

Image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2008_reading_book_3124785808.jpg

Death of the Author In this view, reading is an activity where meaning is produced, rather than passively consumed

Image source: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/travelblogs/271/43408/All+the+Cool+Kids+Read+Books?destId=362644

“The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author.” Roland Barthes

Death of the Author In the visual arts, the “death of the author" was signaled by the shift from the Abstract Expressionist model of the picture as expression of the artist's emotion towards a new paradigm that focuses on the viewer’s experience

Hans Namuth, Jackson Pollock in his Studio, 1950

Death of the Author This applies as much to Happenings, as it does to Post Painterly Abstraction and Minimalism

Ellsworth Kelly, Colors for a Large Wall, 1951 Museum of Modern Art

Death of the Author Cancelling out the artist makes room for the viewer to become involved in completing the work

Yayoi Kusama, Mirror Room - Phalli’s Field, museum Boymans van Beuningen in Rotterdam Image source: Flickr