Death of the Author - My Thoughts

I am an English major. Ten points to your house of choice if you're not surprised by that.

As I navigate my education, I've run into a certain scenario that drives me absolutely nuts.

My professor assigns me five pieces of literature to study. I read and analyze them, reviewing summaries, characters, themes, and allusions. I make sure I know the pieces forward and backward. I'll go take the test.

To my dismay, half of the test's questions ask me about the authors.

What.

And then I fail and find my otherwise perfect overall grade dropped two letters.

The reason why this bothers me so much is because I am a staunch, avid believer in the concept of La mort de l'auteur, or The Death of the Author.

No, not literally.

The Death of the Author is a literary philosophy that stems from the art of criticism. Supporters of this philosophy believe that too much literary criticism relies on studying the life of the author and how it might have influenced the piece. 

An example of this might include The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, written by Mark Twain. I have studied this piece no less than three times in college and at least once in high school. However, I wonder what would have happened if the legendary MARK TWAIN had written the piece anonymously. Would anyone really care about it?

And that's what's important to supporters of The Death of the Author. If we ignored who wrote a certain piece of literature and instead focused on the merits of the literature itself, how much literature found in the Norton Anthologies would still be considered relevant today?

As another example, I absolutely hate Emily Dickinson. Because of this, I find myself becoming a social pariah whenever I study her in class. After all, who am I to dislike Emily Dickinson? My question is, would Emily Dickinson fans still like all of her poems if they had been presented as unconnected pieces of anonymous literature?

Extreme supporters of The Death of the Author say that even living authors have no right to add meaning to their own work. Let's say I publish a book. I might say my book is a subtle critique of capitalism. A college professor may say my book is an allegory relating to the situation in the Middle East. A high school student may say my book is a lengthy sports analogy. 

Extreme supporters of The Death of the Author would contend that all of us are equally correct in our interpretations, because that's what we (the critics) gleaned from the book for ourselves. 

That's right; I wrote the book, but my understanding of it is essentially meaningless. My thoughts on the book are nothing but an opinion.

Advocates of The Death of the Author believe that any written piece of literature should be strong enough to stand on its own feet, and not be supported by a big name from literary history. What should be important is how universal the book's message is, not who wrote it. If the message behind Moby Dick is no longer relevant, why should we continue to study it?

Anyway, I've beaten this into the ground. I'm going to step off my soapbox now. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you tomorrow!

Speaking of publishing books, I actually did write a book. It's called Ama's Watch, and I'm currently trying to self-publish it. If you would like to get some loot and goodies, support my project at KickStarter until February 1st!

Ama's Watch: A Satirical Medieval Spiritual Fantasy