Author,Text,and Reader:Death of the Author and Meaning of the Text

摘要

This paper is going to explore Roland Barthes,Michel Foucault and Wolfgang Iser’s theories upon the question,death of the author,from three aspects comparatively:What is the connotation of the author in their understandings respectively?Why is death of the author necessary in modern or postmodern period?What will take the author’s position after its death?Through detailed analysis and comparison of their texts and propositions,this paper attempts to indicate that Barthes advocates that textual meaning is within text itself,dispels author’s conclusiveness on meaning of a text,and suggests the openness and multiplicity of textual meaning.By reexamining the writing subject and redefining the function of author,Foucault indicates that the concept“author”is a function of discourse.He degrades author’s crucial significance in the process of textual interpretation,but keeps author as an existential mode of discourse.Wolfgang Iser states that the meaning of a text generates from the reading process,a dialogue between the text and its reader.Once a literary text is finished,it remains quite and full of potentialities,waiting for reader to unfold itself,waiting to realize itself in reading process.