A ‘text is not a line of words releasing a single “theological” meaning ... but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash’ (Roland Barthes, ‘The Death of the Author’). Discuss Barthes’ idea of the ‘The Death of the Author’ and how it could lead to an understanding of Wordsworth’s ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ or another Romantic poem that you have discussed in EN150. Your essay should cite at least 2 critical sources in addition to the poem(s).
This essay will discuss the statement that the reader can have a greater understanding to the poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud” after the background of the poem is shown, compared to without the background. Barthes’ infamous words in “The Death of the Author” tells us no writings are original. He also declares “Once the Author is removed, the claim to decipher a text becomes quite futile”. After reading “The Death of the Author” a reader wonder what can be understood in a poem before and after removing the author, in this case, removing William Wordsworth from ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’. At
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“The removal of the Author… utterly transforms the modern text” (Barthes 2). By removing the author, Barthes argues, the text becomes just a piece of writing, words without context, as the author gives them context and meaning. He also argues that the author cannot create something original, “His only power is to mix writings, to counter the ones with the others, in such a way as never to rest on any one of them.” (Barthes 2). Barthes finishes his argument by declaring “… the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author”, as the writing is meant for the reader, they absorb and find its meanings and “To give a text an Author is to impose a limit on that text… to close the