Study Task 1: Illustration & Authorship

‘The Death of the Author’ (1968) written by French Literary theorist Roland Barthes presents ideas about the power of the reader of a text as opposed to the power of the author.

Bathes states that ‘writing is the destruction of every voice’ (p.142), suggesting that the role of the author is no longer essential to the understanding and appreciation of a text immediately after it has been composed and exposed to public perception. The reader, approaching the text with a fresh perspective, begins to hold more responsibility to the text than the writer himself. In other words, a power-shift occurs between the two opposing parties, resulting in the author entering ‘into his own death’ (p.142).

A further point made by Barthes suggests that ‘To give a text an author is to impose a limit on that text’ (p.147). This proposes the idea that being aware of the creator would obstruct the message or the impact that the text has on the audience. In conjunction with this, Graphic Designer Michael Rock suggests that ‘the primary concern of both the viewer and the critic is not who made it, but rather what it does and how it does it.’ in his essay concerning ‘Graphic Authorship’ (1996) which discusses the same argument made by Barthes, but in a non-literary sense. Rock’s statement suggests that the knowing of the author does not hinder the ability of the outcome (as Barthes states), but would simply serve no purpose. The importance lies within the text or product itself. An example of this is French Graphic Designer Jean Jullien’s ‘Peace for Paris’ illustration, created as a means of providing a recognisable symbol of support for those involved in or affected by the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris.

The piece was wrongly mistaken as the work of renowned artist Banksy and was shared and widely distributed through social media by other supporters alongside this false attribution, resulting in its tremendous amount of recognition and popularity. However, in an interview composed for The Telegraph, Jullien expresses the following- ‘I didn't care. It's not the time to claim ownership, or a price on something. It's not a time for concerns like that.’ in response to being questioned on the subject matter. The artist was not concerned with the idea of authorship due to the weight and importance of the matter he was responding to. This therefore reinforces Rock’s comment on the significance of the content of the outcome as opposed to the significance of its creator.

 In conclusion, this reiterates the initial discussion presented at the beginning of this argument in relation to the idea of the unimportance of the creator and as a result suggests that ‘the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author’ (p.148), in the words of Roland Barthes.

http://artsites.ucsc.edu/faculty/Gustafson/FILM%20162.W10/readings/barthes.death.pdf

http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/the-designer-as-author

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/jean-jullien-peace-for-paris-symbol/