Reflections from "Death of the Author" to "Death of the Reader"

Abstract

Roland Barthes put forward the famous literary theory of "the death of the author" in his masterpiece "The Death of the Author". Under the scope of literature and art, the discussion and debate about "the death of the author" has been enriched and deepened in the course of researchers' study. The intent of the literary theory of the "death of the author" is to remove the author's dominant position in the creation of the text in order to expand the scope of the meaning of the text itself and to enrich the space for the reader as an object of reception. Discussions about the theory itself have not only appeared in the fields of literary studies, literary criticism, and the history of reading, but have also generated new points of interest and focus along with cultural development, media changes, and social transformations. When the "death of the author" is re-examined and further extended to the reader's level, and combined with certain social realities, it will provide some new thoughts and inspirations for the study of literature.