- Roland Barthes argues that the meaning of a text depends on the reader's interpretation rather than the author's intentions. He asserts that a work's unity lies in how it is received by audiences, not in its origins or creator. - Barthes's theory of "The Death of the Author" rejects classical literary criticism's practice of incorporating an author's biography and intentions to explain a text's meaning. Instead, it emphasizes the reader's role in deriving new insights and interpretations unconstrained by any single definitive meaning. - By arguing that the author's role ends as soon as they fix the text in writing, Barthes elevates the status of the reader over the author and asserts that any knowledge gained comes from

1. -Roland Barthes

9. Agree....?
Each piece of writing contains
multiple layers and meanings.

10. Try to Interpret the following Lines -
1. दारू सोडा पाणी प्या
2. भाांडी घासून झाल्यावर बायकोने नवऱ्याला
चहा
करून पाजला.

11. In a Nutshell........
• 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.

12. • Death of the Author is a reaction against the
Classical Criticism
***************************************************
In Classical Criticism -
• Author is at the centre
• To interpret a text, the reader must study the
biography, influences, tendency, personal views of
the author.
• Reader has no freedom to interpret the text
personally

13. • Barthes's essay argues against traditional literary
criticism's practice of relying on the intentions and
biography of an author to definitively explain the
"ultimate meaning" of a text.
• Instead, the essay emphasizes the primacy of each
individual reader's interpretation of the work over
any "definitive" meaning intended by the author, a
process in which subtle or unnoticed characteristics
may be drawn out for new insight.

14. • The reader’s role has historically been
subordinated to an understanding of the
text’s content.
• Here Roland Barthes argued that authorship
is just a linguistic function. The author is a
subject position in atext or discourse, not a
psychological being who serves as locus and
origin of meaning.

15. • In "The Death of the Author", he argues against
traditional literary criticism's practice of
incorporating the intentions and biographical
context of an author in an interpretation of a
text and instead argues that writing and
creator are unrelated.
• In this particular essay, Barthes argues against
the method of reading and criticism that relies
on aspects of the author's identity

16. Barthes introduces this notion of intention in the epigraph
(paragraph) to the essay, taken from Honoré de Balzac's story
entitled ‘Sarrasine’ in which a male protagonist mistakes a
castrato for a woman and falls in love with him. Castrato was
in disguise of a woman.
When, in the passage, the character dotes over his perceived
womanliness, Barthes challenges his own readers to
determine who is speaking, and about what. "Is it Balzac the
author professing 'literary' ideas on femininity? Is it universal
wisdom? Romantic psychology? .

26. • How text is being correlated by the
reader is more important.
• The author is nothing more than a
dragoman and imitator and
everything is not original for him.
• He simply recreates the materials
that were already used.

27. • The author starts stepping toward
his death at the moment he starts
writing. The language itself speaks
in writing not the author.
• Hence, it is language that functions
where the author is nothing less.
• As the moment writer starts writing, he
is dead he writes as he has no control
over the text but lays on the
interpretation of readers.

28. • Barthes states in his second statement
that reader if views through the
author’s eye it would be
non -beneficial from reading.
• By the interpretation of the Author
with the text, the text is limited
automatically.

29. If the Author is not dead then…
****
The reader only focuses on clarifying
the Author’s opinion and whether
they agree or not with the Author and
don’t focus on their own thoughts
and opinions of the piece/text.

30. • Barthes claims that it is the status of the
reader should be elevated instead of the
Author.
• Any knowledge gained from a piece of
writing should be considered as the
personal experiences of the reader and
by his insightful interpretation not as
dexterity/art or skill of the Author

31. “the birth of the reader must come at the cost of
the death of the Author,” the idealistic him is
speaking, not realistic.
The understanding and interpretation of
the reader might help and this has no
connection between the author and the text,
Barthes is unerring in that.

32. The only thing that Barthes tried is
to extend the meaning and
interpretation of the work of art
to embrace the interaction of the
other texts and the responses of
the reader.

33. • Barthes advocates the superiority of the reader over
the writer and reader is not an end-user but an ever-
producer.
• After writing a certain piece of literature the writer
loses his authority over the writing.
• The expression is the property of the writer and
perception is the property of the reader. The reader
enjoys multiple doors to enter into the field of
reading and has even more when he comes out

34. Thank You....!