LITERATURE

Literature

Literature

Introduction

This paper intends to analyze the statement given by Roland Barthes “It is language that speaks not the author”. It also considers the implications of Roland Barthes's statement to our understanding of literature. Further, the analyses are made with respect to structuralist theories as well as post structuralist theories.

Discussion

Roland Barthes' statement “It is language that speaks not the author” is written in his piece of work “Death of the Author”. This piece explores the work of author and the magic of language that forms the shape of text. We know that language is a body of prescriptions and habits common to all writers of an era. This means that language is like a nature that passes entirely through the words of the writer, though without giving any form, without even the food: it's like a circle of abstract truths, out of which only begins to settle the density of a verb alone. It encloses the entire creative writing, which is like the sky, soil, and their junction shape that is familiar to habitat of a man.

In his essay, “The Death of the Author”, Roland Barthes argues against the classic criticism. He argues that classic criticism imposes limits upon the text itself by focusing on the author rather than the text (Barthes, p. 185). Barthes argues that there is no such thing as an author. He believes that there is only a scriptor whose ideas are not entirely original. Barthes also argues that because the author has numerous influences, we as readers and critics can never know the true influences. Barthes argues that it is necessary to analysis the linguistics of the text because it is not a voice that speaks but the language. He goes further to point out that it is only in the reader that the text has any meaning and because of this the presence of the author is minimized because the text becomes open to numerous interpretations that the author may not have originally intended. Barthes also implies that the death of the author makes the reader more significant because they become the creative force of the text rather than the author. Barthes also argues that the moment of author when he steps in to his own death that is when his writing begins.” (Barthes, p. 185).

Within “The Death of the Author”, Barthes issues the question of “who is speaking”. (Barthes, p. 185) He highlights his theory with his example of Sarrasine by Baltac. Barthes uses this example to illustrate that writing is the deconstruction of every point of origin (Barthes, p. 185) Barthes includes this to beg the question is this statement known knowledge, an expression of Baltac, or simply romantic psychology. Barthes furthers his argument by presenting Mallarme and his assertion that linguistic analysis is necessary. Barthes also uses Greek tragedies as examples of why the author is dead in this work. He points out that in many Greek tragedies there are many instances of words with double ...