“Death of the Author” Student Edition

1. “Death of the Author”Student Edition By: Roland Barthes Natalie Connelly and Jessica Trueba Edited by: Dr. Kay Picart Associate Professor of English Courtesy Associate Professor of Law and Brett Ader

2. Roland Barthes • 1915- 1980 • French social and literary critic, who’s writing on semiotics made structuralism one of the leading intellectual movements of the 20th century. • Spent a long period of his life in sanatoriums because of tuberculosis. During this time is when he began to show interest in writing. • He spent the majority of his life writing and teaching at prestigious universities around the world. • He died in March 23, 1980 in a street accident .

3. Marx and Hegel • Marx’s believes that ______ makes man • Hegel believes that ______ makes history

4. What is Barthes’ view of writing and authorship? • ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ • ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ • ____________________________________________________________________

5. What is structuralism? • Structuralism: ___________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________. • Four characteristics of structuralist analysis; -______________________________________ -______________________________________ -______________________________________ -______________________________________

6. The Awareness of Writing • “ Mallarme’s entire poetics consists in suppressing the author in the interest of writing” • In France, Mallarme is the first one who foresees the necessity of language itself. For Mallarme, it is language which speaks, not the author. Moreover, to write is to reach the point that language "performs," not "me.“

7. What is surrealism?

8. What are Utopian Dreams?

9. The Death of the Author Barthes uses the relationship between the ________ or the _________ and the text as an example to emphasize the death of the author. Barthes indicates that it is the ________ or the _________ who understand written words. These writings are drawn from different cultures and then become relations of dialogues and parody in literature .

10. Discussion • Do you agree or disagree with Barthes theories of history and man?

11. Discussion • Barthes said that the author cannot claim any absolute authority over his or her text because, in some ways, he or she did not write it. Do you agree or disagree?