Antonia Bernardin

For those who don’t run in the booktok, bookstagram, book tube online sphere, these days we are very quick to cancel an author based on their actions (and rightly so in most cases!).

And for some, once an author has done something to end up on the shit list, it means they no longer want to engage with any of that authors work, even if there is a lot of sentimentality attached to it (I.e She Who Will Not be Named).

Occasionally with this blog, I just cover topics that have been on mind, this is something we discuss on my podcast a lot, about how much you can separate an author from their books.

So what does Death of the Author mean by the original definition?

From Wikepedia:

“The Death of the Author” (French: La mort de l’auteur) is a 1967 essay by the French literary critic and theorist Roland Barthes (1915–1980). Barthes’s essay argues against traditional literary criticism‘s practice of relying on the intentions and biography of an author to definitively explain the “ultimate meaning” of a text. Instead, the essay emphasizes the primacy of each individual reader’s interpretation of the work over any “definitive” meaning intended by the author, a process in which subtle or unnoticed characteristics may be drawn out for new insight.

So, essentially, once the work leaves the authors hands, they’re intentions, meanings and, essentially, the author themselves, stop existing, it’s in the hands of the reader now.

This can be applied to ‘you know who’ as well, given the many famous tweets stating things that were never overtly written into the original narrative, which are a prime example of the author’s “intentions” being irrelevant within the context of the original text.

How I think it applies in the modern world

Let me clear, I believe in accountability. I like that aspect of the current social media world and not supporting someone who holds opinions or has done something that is morally reprehensible.

But I also think, you can love a book and hold it separate from the author. You can take steps such as buying it second hand to try to ensure the money is not ending up in their pocket.

This trend, of putting someone who talks about a book from an author who has done or said something wrong, in the same camp as them, saying that it is tantamount to supporting them, makes me worried.

This is where I think the ‘death of the author’ concept comes into play, because it is about how the work is a separate entity from them. As long as their work doesn’t carry any harmful elements in the text, I think you should be able to love that story. I don’t know if I agree with tainting someone’s love for a book by conflating it with supporting whatever the author has done. I think it’s a slippery slope.

You can love the narrative and what it means to you, it does not mean you love the author. Especially, if their reviews include the caveat of mentioning that people should do their own research and decide whether they want to engage with that author for themselves.

So, there you go, that’s where I kind of sit in the issue. I know there are many people who would disagree with this opinion and I also completely understand why.