Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Six November-December 2024.
Arab Poets & Writers
The Birth of the Reader, Guest editorial by Dr Salwa Gouda,
Egyptian literary translator, critic, and academic at the English Language and Literature Department at Ain-Shams University.
She has gathered Arab poets and writers from nine Arab countries –
Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon
Man is a creative creature, and creativity is a life force that pushes life forward to a dynamic existence. Literary writing, as a creative act, plays an essential role in this direction. People throughout history trusted creative writers and considered them supporting agents in explaining human behaviors, motives, histories, tendencies and attitudes before the emergence of Psychology and human sciences. Not only were writers the prophets of inspiration and revelation but also the vehicles of wisdom, meanings and the saviors of the world at certain time in history when the people lost confidence in the power of religion and politicians. Nevertheless, the French literary critic Roland Barthes‘s essay, The Death of the Author 1967, challenges the traditional literary views by arguing against the idea of authors as sole creators of meaning. Instead, he suggests that writing emerges from various cultural influences rather than a single authorial voice.
The essay explores the evolution of the concept of the author and analyzes how different writers have challenged this notion. Barthes emphasizes a transformation in contemporary literature wherein the significance of the author is reduced, allowing the text to assume a prominent role. He contends that the essence of writing resides in the reading process, positioning the reader as the site where all meanings of the text intersect. Barthes argues that linking a text to its author constrains its potential for interpretation. By advocating for the “death of the author,” he promotes the emergence of the reader, freeing the text from a singular interpretation and permitting a multitude of meanings. Barthes critiques conventional critical methods that aim to reveal the author’s intentions, calling for a more exploratory interaction with literary works.
The notion of “the death of the author” holds significant appeal and relevance in contemporary discourse. Many individuals interpret texts from the perspective of the author’s identity, forming opinions based on their sentiments towards the writer rather than engaging directly with the content of the ideas presented. Central to this discussion is our desire to comprehend art through the lens of its creators, while simultaneously striving for a more complete understanding. We are in pursuit of answers. The phenomenon often termed the “cult of the author” is, in fact, a relatively recent development. During the Middle Ages, the practice of imitation was widespread and accepted; it was not considered a breach of copyright but rather a normative aspect of literary creation.
The phrase “the death of the author” means denying that the text originates from the author or that it is an expression of the author’s experience and life knowledge. The result is the denial of the creative self, creativity, and the originality of the creator. There is no doubt that this is strange and shocking, but this is what Roland Barthes explicitly calls for in his essay “The Death of the Author”.
This nihilistic view of the creative process is nothing but part of a comprehensive tendency that excludes the individual’s self from the center of human existence, denying any active role it has in history and replacing it with language, so that the self becomes a product of language rather than language being a product of the self, and the world and everything turn into a text.
It has been previously indicated that the replacement of language for the authorial self is part of a broader trend that seeks to undermine the centrality of the individual self as a source of literary creativity and as an active element in the movement of history, stripping it of all the humanistic values for which it has long struggled and began to achieve during the European Enlightenment. For this reason, Barthes states: “The author is a modern idea; it is the product of our societies that discovered, after emerging from the Middle Ages, the value and status of the individual, thanks to English empiricism, French rationalism, and the personal doctrine of the Reformation.
Thus, it was natural for this situation, which represents the essence of capitalist ideology, to attribute great importance to the figure of the author.” Here, Barthes reveals his ideological inclination against values that elevate the self, describing them as bourgeois capitalist values. However, the target of this elimination is not just the authorial self; rather, the elimination aims at the critic, interpretation, and the meaning of the text and the subject in all its realistic, social, and historical dimensions, making the call for the death of the author a call to negate all elements of literary activity.
He states: “When the author is excluded, the claim for interpretation becomes futile. To link the text to the author means to impose a limit on the text and to impose a final meaning upon it, thereby closing off writing, which suits the critic perfectly. The critic sees his primary task as uncovering the author—uncovering society, history, the self, and freedom within the text. When the author is discovered, the text is interpreted, which is considered a victory for the critic. Therefore, it is not strange that the undermining of the author represents an undermining of the critic.”
Roland Barthes posits that the concept of the ‘death of the author’ signifies the ‘birth of the reader.’ This assertion implies that the author does not hold the position of ultimate authority over the text, and that the interpretation of the text is shaped by the reader’s personal insights rather than the author’s intentions. Viewing a text solely as the creation of an author suggests that it is an isolated work, disregarding the myriad influences, references, and allusions that contribute to its overall significance.
Barthes argues that attributing an author to a text imposes constraints, providing it with a definitive meaning and thereby restricting the reader’s interpretative freedom. He contends that the author’s name serves as a marker of finality, limiting the scope of meaning and leaving little opportunity for diverse interpretations. The notion of the ‘death of the author’ is thus a complex idea that does not pertain to the literal or physical demise of an individual.
The concept known as the ‘death of the author’ presents a paradoxical notion that does not pertain to the actual or physical demise of an author, but rather signifies the absence of the author within the text itself. By eliminating the author from consideration, a space is created for diverse interpretations by readers, leading to a multitude of distinct understandings. Barthes challenges the conventional perspective that positions the author as the origin of the text, the source of its meaning, and the sole authority on its interpretation. This perspective, as articulated by Barthes, heralds the ‘birth of the reader,’ as it empowers readers to assume control over the interpretative process.
It is paradoxical that Barthes, having dismissed the author and all the fundamental components of literary creation, chose to retain the reader. Nevertheless, he permitted the reader’s presence only after removing all essential and human characteristics. He asserts: “The reader is the space on which all the references that make up writing are inscribed without losing their identity… The reader, devoid of history, biography, and psychology, is merely the person holding all the traces that constitute the written text… The birth of the reader must be at the expense of the death of the author.”
© Dr Salwa Gouda
Salwa Gouda is an Egyptian literary translator, critic, and academic at the English Language and Literature Department at Ain-Shams University. She holds a PhD in English literature and criticism. She received her education at Ain-Shams University and California State University in San Bernardino. She has published several academic books, including “Lectures in English Poetry, and “Introduction to Modern Literary Criticism” and others. She has also contributed to the translation of “The Arab Encyclopedia for Pioneers,” which includes poets and their poetry, philosophers, historians, and men of letters, under the supervision of UNESCO. Additionally, her poetry translations have been published in various international magazines.
Really interesting editorial. I work a lot with young people and I often ask, ‘does the writer finish the book?’..it is surprising to hear quite a number saying, ‘the reader finishes the book.’ When I ask why. They will usually say ‘because the reader can take the story with them.