In this blog post, I explain my discomfort with Barthes’ argument – his perspectives hold different strengths depending on the approach to literature for reading pleasure, education and academic purposes. Here, I also address the significance of the author to legal culture and conclude that authorship matters the most when credibility is paramount. 

When navigating texts, Barthes is right to argue that the reader interprets and creates new meaning from texts and reader experience. As he rightly points out, in every work of literature, the ‘raw material’ in the form of words are not original. When one purviews texts for reading pleasure, the identity of the author may or may not matter. If I was randomly selecting books for reading pleasure, the author will not matter as I am interested in the substance of the literary work and not the author’s identity. However, the author is important when one seeks out specific works from him – this is especially true when an author is the mastermind behind several successful trilogies and franchises, creating stories and characters that audiences know and love; they become the sole reason why their literature is sought out – one might develop a taste for the various novels of Jane Austen if one is in the mood for a sassy heroine navigating societal standards in Old Britain, solely because Jane Austen’s books have built a specific formula from Elizabeth Bennett to Emma. Focault’s argument comes into play here – indeed, some authors are the products of their time and institution and those whose stories are set in the background and time of their own, bring an unique essence to texts.

When legal culture is concerned, the argument that the author becomes obsolete may be too big of a leap as many analyses of literature often turn on the author as a product of his time, social institution to understand his works and his intention. This is especially pertinent for legal culture – for example, in statutory interpretation, many statutes are deferential to the drafter/legislator’s intent especially when a purposive interpretation is taken. In academic texts, credibility of the author matters as one takes inspiration and forms submissions and arguments from the shoulders of respected academics. In fact, such legal submissions rely on the credibility of academics to push an argument as the authority of a certain topic. Hence, it is near impossible to separate authorship from literary works in many cases.

(400 words)