The Death Of The Author Analysis

This week we discussed the death of the author and looked at readings by Barthes and Moxey. While Barthes takes an extreme position, encouraging the abandonment of the author and discussing why the idea of the author should be abandoned, Moxey discusses the ways in which the death of the author effects art history. Both of the authors state that we are moving away from the humanist idea that we have a conscious mind, that there is a universal truth, and that there is a possibility of objective and impartial thought.
Barthes believed that writing could no longer be considered a form of representation but was now more of a performance. He believes that the idea of the artist is a humanist conception and is one that is not realistic. He though this because in his opinion, the idea of the author was too focused on attaching importance to the person, rather than the facts or information within the text. He stresses the idea that once the author enters into language, the autonomy is lost because we are part of a social structure. The line between characters and the author was becoming too blurred, with people believing that it was the writer of the text telling the reader about their life. He states
This new way of looking at work creates a shift from the idea of universal knowledge to a more local knowledge (what one group of people understand, another group might understand differently, based on their identities and experiences). Moxey states that history is no longer the interpretation of the past from a neutral perspective but one of many interpretations, produced from a particulate perspective. We no longer need to look for a universal truth and things do not need to be understood in oppositional terms. There are many ideas and themes that do not fit into these rigid boxes and confuse these