Death of the Author – We don’t care what the author says he wanted the work to mean. We let the work speak for itself.
Weekend at Bernie’s of the Author – We don’t care what the author said. The authorial intent must be whatever we found in the work. (h/t @raggedjackscarlet)
Cryonic Stasis of the Author – The author is actually dead for a long time. Nobody gets all the references any more, but my literature teacher told me I have to take the context at the time into account, so I got a book that explains the work, instead of letting it speak for itself.
Frankenstein’s Monster of the Author – We let the work sort of speak for itself. We ignore what the author said about the intent behind the work. Instead we will use the author’s tweets on unrelated issues in order to ascribe intent and meaning to the work.
Night of the Living Dead Authors – Teeeeeeeeeeeeexts
Vampirism of the Author – The author reads a clever but far-fetched interpretation of his work and decides that it will become canon.
Near Death Experience of the Author – The author wants the work to speak for itself, but after a long period of restraint and silence, says that while the work still stands for itself, some interpretations of it are just plain wrong.
Faked Death of the Author – Author adopts pseudonym, explains intent as a series of YouTube fan theory videos.
Schroedinger’s Cat of the Author – The author publicly confirms that the ending was meant to be ambiguous all along.
Attempted Suicide of the Author – The author tells you that he wants the work to speak for itself; also he’s a huge Roland Barthes fanboy.
Suicide of the Author – The author admits that the story was not meant to be that deep and all meaning is accidental.
Necromancy of the Author – If author is dead, finding some similar literary figure and seeing what they reckon about the work’s authorial intent
Necrophilia of the Author – Slashfic – not all of it, just when it concerns a cartoonishly obvious sexual relationship that was for some reason not explicit and canonical in the original work
Induced Coma of the Author – The author stays quiet to see if we can work it out, as a test
Suicide-by-cop of the Author – The work concerns, or seems to concern, a hot-button issue. Some vast cultural institution decides what the real meaning of the work is, regardless of anything the author says or any basis in the text itself. This interpretation becomes the best-known and most widely accepted reading (cf. that comic about English class that ends ‘The curtains were fucking blue’)
@petermorwood you are fancy pants author what are your thoughts
Looks down. Not fancy pants, just bog-standard blue denim jeans.
Appendectomy of the Author – the author gets a chance to revise the work and remove material that seemed like a good idea at the time but which has become a real pain.
Cosmetic surgery of the Author – while doing that necessary cutting, the author also carries out a few nips and tucks to make things look better.
I am literally on this hellsite to escape writing my chapter for a book responding to the continued influence of “The Death of the Author,” everyone involved in this can fuck right off.
Published
Meg's Mumbles 