“The Death of the Author” is a critical approach in modern literary theory, conceived by literary critic Roland Barthes, in the short paper " The Death of the Author" published in 1967. This short text is one of the milestones in postmodernist literary discourse.
According to
this approach, it is legitimate for the modern reader to interpret according to
his faith and understanding any written text, even if this was not the
intention of the author. The fundamental position of the article "The
Death of the Author" is an anti-hegemonic position, which formulates the
disappearance of the author from the critical discourse on literature and its
replacement by the reader himself. That is, the reader must ignore the author's
existence in a particular cultural and historical context, as a character that
unites the creation of literature, so that endless possibilities of
interpretation open up before him.
According to
Barth in “The Death of the Author”, the new reader of the literary text is
responsible for releasing the subversive potential of literature into the
world. To him is transferred the duty to bring to reality the reluctant and
anti-authoritarian nature of literature.
See full summary of Barthes' "Death of the Author".
Here you can find a comparison of Barthes's "The Death of the Author" and Foucault's "What is an Author?"