Study Task 1 | Illustration and Authorship

'Death of the Author' (1968) by Roland Barthes

*500 word summary including short analysis of illustrator and how their practice relates to themes of this text

Points:

• Pieces of work (literary, artistic, etc) always reflect their author or maker on some level. They shouldn't be taken as fact as they are more often than not a reflection of their lives, opinions, experiences, the context of their lives.

• When the author has been found, the text is 'explained'. Suggests that people believe true meaning is found when the authors true intentions are revealed. However people could take away something from a piece of work that is their own explanation, and gain just as much from that - or by transposing their own lives/self on to it.

• Things can assume new meanings every time someone different views/reads/engages with something. Individual interpretation.

Quotes:

"The image of literature to be found in ordinary culture is tyrannically centred on the author"

"...Van Gogh's his madness, Tchaikovsky's his vice"

"...he made of his very life a work for which his own book was the model"

Relation to Illustration / Visual Culture:• To create is to express some part of yourself, even on a subconscious level. For example the piece of work may not be about you directly, but is influenced by your tone of voice, your visual tastes, your likes and interests, your approaches and methods. Especially in illustration, where the 'hand of the maker' often shows.

• The act of putting work out into the world offers the chance for things to take on a completely new meaning from what you intended. This is due to (mis)interpretation from the audience, readers, viewers.