Authors in Need of Revival

In Death of An Author, Roland Barthes posits an interesting concept in terms of reading and understanding a piece of writing. He argues that writing stands on its own and can only be interpreted after the removal of the author. He lays this out very clearly when he claims, "Writing is that neutral, composite, oblique space where our subject slips away, the negative where all identity is lost, starting with the very identity of the body writing"(875). This rather romantic view of literature and while his argument is valid, there are several issues that arise when the author is completely taken out of consideration that make me wonder if Barthes's theory is really a stable one.

Writing is a very human extension of the individual armed with an idea and a pen; and Barthes discredits the relationship between the author and the product. He writes, "the modern scripter is born simultaneously with the text, is in no way equipped with a being preceding or exceeding the writing, is not the subject with the book as the predicate"(876). This seems to take away from modern writers, assuming that modernity does nothing more than repeat the past and that modern authors are not worthy of being attached to their writing. While it is true that plot constructs are fairly set and conditioned for modern writers, taking away identity even from a rehashed piece could be detrimental to the production of quality work due to the fact that we are naturally egocentric. Authors will always be somewhat attached to their work and this carries over into interpretation and criticism.

It is also important to consider the time context in which Barthes is writing. During the mid-1900's, the removal of the author was much more suited to the circumstances compared to today's situation of extremely fast communication, consumer culture, and the degradation of popular literature. Barthes slightly observes the modern context when writing, "Surrealism contributed to the desacralization of the image of the Author by ceaselessly recommending the abrupt disappointment of expectations of meaning, by entrusting the hand with the task of writing as quickly as possible what the head itself is unaware of"(876). This form of "quick writing" is extremely prevalent today, especially with the advent of social networks. Audiences now need, more than ever, authors to depend on for quality work; and when that is taken away, we are surrounded with a white noise of nameless voices and zero accountability for quality in literature.