Week 8- Authorship

 This week’s readings were Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author, and Sherrie Levine, Statement. I had a hard time this week understanding the meaning behind these two readings. My initial thoughts were about the meaning of originality and truly unique creations. I thought the writers were speaking on how there are no original writings because all writings were first thoughts or verbal stories. However, after discussion in class, I was enlightened on more interpretations of authorship in these writings. 

The first writing, The Death of the Author, describes how texts are not merely a single thought constructed by the author. Writings are described as a collective of an author's lives and cultural influences. A quote from the text that describes this perfectly is, “A text is made of multiple writings, drawn from many cultures and entering into mutual relations of dialogue, parody, contestation.” For me, this is a great explanation as to how every person’s art and creations are influenced by their personal lives. This idea carries throughout each writing we evaluated. The second writing seems to embody this theory on authorship. The artist, Sherrie Levine, Statement, basically copies the first text in both sentence structure and meaning. She only changes a few words. Yet, she is allowed to plagiarize this text. She explains how since she is a woman and her life has differed from the original author, her experiences have changed the context of the original enough to become her own. This artist has done this with visual art as well such as, After Walker Evans: 4 where she simply took pictures of another artist’s pictures and displayed them as her own. Now whether or not you believe this representation to be valid, it has been identified as a factor that influences writing. This was one of the main concepts that I was able to think about and try to construct meaning from. 

After Walker Evans: 4, Sherrie Levine, 1981

Another concept from these readings that resonated with me was the role of the author. The book describes the author’s influence in several ways, which confused me when I first read it. The book states, “The explanation of a work is always sought in the man or woman who produced it, as if it were always in the end, through the more or less transparent allegory of the fiction, the voice of a single person, the author 'confiding' in us.” This part of the text alludes to the importance of the author’s experience and life while creating their work. However, later in the text it describes the author as, “the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author.” To me, this means that the author had a role in creating the artwork or writing, yet meaning can only be created by those who view or read the piece that was created. At the end of the day, the work that was made is now separate from its author or creator, and the author cannot always be beside the work to explain its context. It is only when the author gives up their work to the public that the public can make meaning from it. The meaning can also differ from the author’s original thoughts. So, even though an author is researched and questioned about an artwork, the viewer is the one who makes meaning for themselves. 

    This resonated with me because of my experiences at CSU-Pueblo. Professor Aaron Alexander always stresses the importance of not talking or explaining your artwork as other’s art critiquing it. He says that whatever your intent was doesn't matter, it's only what people have perceived from it. Which to me is such a brilliant concept. I feel like since meaning can be interpreted so many ways, that not every artist will feel understood through their works. This will encourage the artist to make more to try and express themselves clearer, yet this just begins the cycle again. Overall, these writings were difficult at first, but the underlying messages were important to understanding art and creation.

Sources:

"After Walker Evans: 4." Metmuseum.org. Accessed October 14, 2021. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/267214.