Roland Barthes, La Mort de l'auteur [The Death of the Author]

Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

“The Death of the Author” is easily Roland Barthes’ best known text. A short essay of just seven pages, it is hard to overstate the impact it has had on literary criticism in the English-speaking world and beyond. It routinely features in the reading lists of courses which introduce students to the foundational concepts of twentieth-century literary theory, and its central ideas have been rehearsed and adapted by many writers, artists and thinkers since its initial publication in English in the avant-garde American journal

Aspen

in 1967. The essay was then published in the French journal

Mantéia

in 1968, before being re-published in English in the collection of Barthes,

Image, Music, Text

, ed. and trans. Stephen Heath, London: Fontana, 1977. The essay has gained this status because…

2279 words

Citation: O' Sullivan, Maria. "La Mort de l'auteur". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 May 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10350, accessed 19 March 2024.]

10350 La Mort de l'auteur 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.