Author Mark Twain is said to have read his own obituary in a newspaper, and sent a telegram to the paper to assure them that “The rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated”. In literary theory the question is not whether any particular flesh and blood author is dead or alive, but whether the Author functions (or should function) as the source of a text’s meaning. Roland Barthes famously announced “The Death of the Author” in his essay of that title, claiming that:
“…literature (it would be better from now on to say writing), by refusing to assign a ‘secret’, an ultimate meaning, to the text (and to the world as text), liberates what may be called an anti-theological activity, an activity that is truly revolutionary since to refuse to fix meaning is, in the end, to refuse God and his hypostases—reason, science, law”
This is clearly a very big and important claim to consider, especially for Christians such as myself who believe both in God and knowable truth. In one of my English essays last semester, I gave my response to his arguments. Barthes’ essay can be read online here, and to read my essay discussing his ideas, click here.