Discussion of Roland Barthes' "Death of the Author" and Michel Foucault's response to this proclaimation in his text of the same name.

In 1968, the French social and literary critic, Roland Barthes, pronounced the death of the Author. What does this so called death mean? Furthermore, what is the author that Barthes claims is now dead? Barthes develops his assertion by describing writing as the 'destruction of every voice, of every point of origin. Writing is ... the negative where all identity is lost, starting with the very identity of the body writing' (121). Barthes assertion of the death of …

…the first place. As Foucault argues, Barthes desire for the absolute absence of the author perpetuates these power structures and fails to understand the author's ideological function within discourse. Bibliography: Barthes, Roland. "The Death of the Author" CLS3000 Class Reader (2005 (1968)) 120- 23 Foucault, Michel. "What is an Author?" CLS3000 Class Reader (2005 (1969)) 205-22. Williamson, Dugald. "Death of the Author" & "On Foucault's 'What is an Author'" "Authorship and criticism" Local Consumption Publications, University of Sydney (1989) 31-39