The Death of the Author- Roland Barthes. - study task 1

‘The Death of the Author’ by Roland Barthes addresses the power of author in the reading and writing of texts. Barthes states the reader / listener do not have a full understanding of reason or the meaning behind the work ‘the author his person, his life, his tastes, his passions.’ (Barthes, 383, 1967) The author’s personal opinions and thoughts flatten the text and block the reader from gaining this understanding, but also they come to the text with fresh point of view.’ Writing is the destruction of every voice, of every point of origin’. ( Barthes, 142, 1967)  So Barthes has a point here about how everyone opinion would differ as they own personal views and opinions would contribute to this.  His work becomes a model for other to work from ‘ … he made of his very life a work for which his own book was the model …’(Barthes, 144, 1967)This leads to Brathes text central theory. That the reader/ listener by coming into the text from another point of view is actually has the most power instead of the author, a power switch.  This then brings into question over who has authorship over the work. Is it the author for writing it? Or is it the viewers for translating and making a opinion or statement about the work?

An example of debateable authorship is Andy Warhol.  Specifically, the Camberwell soups print. Now this product was out on sale in supermarkets before Warhol made this work. The design of the can itself could be said to have been copied, however he then duplicated it many times and repeated this. Also the media used , print allows the artist to replicate work almost identically, but authorship can be added in colour and method of print. But is this him interpreting the product in a new way, and voicing his own opinion on issues like mass commercialism? Barthes theory, if correct ,is a continuous circle that repeats itself from viewer to viewer.  Therefore bringing back to Barthes argument of the reader taking control over the authors work , Warhol has made the cans his. He has taken an already re branded item and made it new and in his own view. However in a Varoom article named ‘The New Is The New Old’  by Paul Davis, Davis discussed what is new but makes the statement that’ It’s safe to say that the concept of the new is a fleeting moment…’ (Davis, 9,2016) So this means that Warhol’s idea was different but only new for a short time as the product did come first and that people are continuously forming new views on his work. As a result the work looses value and becomes the old new.  

Barthes makes some very valid points over authorship and his text central theory , but he contradicts him self , not sure weather incidental or not but if he believes in this theory then we as the readers are the new authors and we should just ignore most of what he states and change it to our own ways.