BoredCaitlin, Barthes

“...what I enjoy in a narrative is not directly its contents or even its structure, but rather the abrasions I impose on the fine surface: I read on, I skip, I look up, I dip in again.” (Barthes 1973, 109)

Reading this quote from Barthes reminded me of a concept I see often in media and literary criticism known as “death of the author,” or as John Green likes to call it, “books belong to their readers”. Surely the creator of any given text doesn’t intend for a reader to “skip... look up... [and] dip in again,” but to Barthes, the only thing that matters  is what he sees in a text. The creator’s intention is completely irrelevant. This implies that when a text is open and available to the public, it doesn’t belong to its creator anymore, but to its spectators. One could say that a work isn’t really complete until readers impose their analyses. When one analyzes a text, one will always bring their own biases and experiences to their reading. A common reaction I see to unusual interpretations of a work skirts along the lines of, “are we reading/watching/looking at the same thing here?” On the surface it may seem that way, but quite often different readers will impose different interpretations on the same work, and thus not technically be looking at the same thing. For example, many read the song “Let it Go” from the Disney film Frozen as a metaphor for embracing sexuality. However, there may be just as many listeners who read the song, and the character of Elsa, as an allegory for mental illness. They may be different interpretations, but they both work well because “Let it Go” can lend itself to many perspectives, and thus many different readings. In fact, I think this concept is discussed rather well in PBS Idea Channel’s video about Frozen and audiences’ reactions to the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVscW9LEMp0

EDIT: Well, looks like I wrote this thing without knowing that Barthes was the one who coined the term "death of the author." I feel awkward now...