I can't sleep, so let's unpack one of the most misunderstood and misused concepts in literary theory: this is not what "death of the author" means. In fact, this usage is the exact opposite of what Barthes intended to critique having lived through WWII: propaganda and capitalism. https://twitter.com/BrennaWomer/status/1321277161769152512

Okay so, Barthes was a structuralist and a post-structuralist, which are essentially literary theories formed in response to a drastically changing world: industrialization changed the fabric of reality itself, and propaganda, art, and advertising were indistinguishable languages

Structuralists argued that people weren't born with meanings inside them (poor, Jewish, beautiful, etc.) or things as true or good (Christianity, kings, capitalism, leaders), people were relational to structures of class/religion, and meaning was constructed through language.

This was specifically meant to take power out of cult of personality rhetoric like Hitler's, and 'metanarratives' the powerful used to control people, such as Christianity, ethnic nationalism, fascism, anti-Semitism, and the burgeoning language of advertising under capitalism.

Structuralism taught the reader to LOOK AT THE CONTEXT around a text and LOOK AT THE AUTHOR, where they come from, their structural position, WHAT THEIR INTENTIONS MIGHT BE. Structuralists believed that no text was neutral, and could be 'read against itself' to reveal its biases.

Post-structuralists (same group on absinthe), were responding to the unreality of a post-WWII 20th century. Europe as the 'firm center' of civilization (lol) was devastated by two world wars, immigrants were fleeing, the theory of relativity destroyed time and space as fixed.

The universe had been DEcentered from Europe (good tbh), propaganda and advertising had rendered all language unreliable, and no author could be trusted to not be a secret Nazi, basically. So the text itself became the object of stability, not the author or his 'genius.'

For Barthes, the author as 'original genius' or 'superior authority' was a dangerous thing—no writing is without context, bias, or flaw. No one is an authority, all writing is pulled from many minds and sources: collective intelligence. No author should be given the power of god.

'The death of the author' is the birth of the reader, giving the reader radical agency to interpret the text relationally and reveal its failures over time. It frees the text from what the author intended and gives us the power to challenge it.

'Death of the author' does not mean 'read abusers bc authors don't matter, look at how good the writing is.' 'Death of the author' shows us how abusers, bigots, and demagogues control the narrative through authority and language, and gives us the critical agency to dismantle it.

If anyone wants a quick guide I made for my students about this (ahem, for myself tbh to understand all this better), here's a link to a PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rH1NS0zVtO9bPbvLQfz3J3RvMbJPcOO3/view?usp=sharing

(If you’re wondering why Critical Race Theory isn’t included in the PDF above it’s because that is its *own* 6-page handout and 2 PowerPoint presentations that are already outdated bc I made them before I read Wilderson, Spillers, and Wynter )