Death of the author
Death of the author is a theory proposed by French literary critic Roland Barthes in 1968. It states that the intentions of the author are meaningless to the interpretation of a text.
According to this theory, any given text consists not of one authorial voice but of multiple genres, outside influences, subconscious drives, and preexisting texts that constantly shape and inform all communication. For this reason, Barthes argues, critics should use texts as a space for free "play" that cannot be defined by any univocal statement of right or wrong with regard to the author. Rather, interaction with the text generates its own pleasure in an act that, for Barthes, closely mirrors sexual intercourse.
Breaking away from the rigid and moralistic confines of formalism, Barthes hints at the savory imperfections, gaps, and opportunities for creative revision and interplay that textual analysis entails.
All of this is in a sense much like this wikipedia. Authorship of any one of these articles is uncertain. Even though my IP will be logged as I write this--am I even allowed to say "I"?--it ceases to be my creation as soon as I have written it. Once the text is written, it is rewritten each time it is read and interpreted. The "I" just referred to could be dead or differently interpreted. Text cannot come to exist without an author, but the moment it does exist (i.e. the moment it is read), the author ceases to exist.
