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The meanings imbued in a text do not belong to the author; they are universal human meanings. Authors are therefore not as omniscient as readers often imagine them to be. Coincidental with the "death of the author," then is the "birth of the reader." Readers are empowered by critical understandings of text that acknowledge an author's fallibility and bias. Authors are assumed to have authority.
Foucault suggested that the author as a powerful figure is a historical construction. The role and the idea of the author varies from situation to situation but also varies across different cultures and across time. Foucault also pointed out that ancient manuscripts were often circulated without authorial attributions. The author as a powerful entity matters most in societies in which the law protects intellectual property. In other words, authorship is bound up with historical and social as well as economic constructs. Readers may also feel comforted when reading a text that can be placed squarely...
Each of these disciplines offer insight into literature and into the role of the author. Ironically the focus on non-white and female authors marks a return to a patriarchal model of authorship. Literary analysts should avoid reading too much of the author's life into a text; although authors are undoubtedly influenced by their particular values, beliefs, and life circumstances, their work should be approached as if the author were in fact a ghost. The "death of the author" suggests that literary texts can be deconstructed without necessarily involving the author's biography. A text is bigger than the person who wrote it. If the author is dead, the work of literature is immortal.
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger The Catcher in the Rye was first published in 1951. The novel deals with the issues of identity, belonging, connection and alienation. This paper will review five articles written on the novel. "Holden's Irony in Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye" This article by Lisa Privitera was published in Explicator in 2008. The article postulates that the irony of Holden Cauldfield is that the harder he
Catcher in the Rye, a novel by J.D. Salinger, is the story of Holden Caulfield, a cynical sixteen-year-old with prematurely gray hair that appears older than his age. Holden is caught at the awkward age between adolescence and adulthood. Set in the 1950s, the story begins with Holden recovering from a breakdown stemming from his expulsion from Pencey Prep School. Holden has already flunked out of three other schools. This
Salinger is an American literary treasure, best known for his novella Catcher in the Rye. However, Catcher in the Rye is but one of many in the canon of Salinger works. Salinger's short stories have recently garnered renewed attention because several unpublished Salinger stories were leaked online in November of 2013, three years after the author's death (Runcie, 2013). Salinger died a recluse, and a man of mystery who was
" Both of these statements are quite arguably true, yet both also smack of the immature self-assuredness that belies the innocence of the speaker, and it is this aspect of the girl -- her very pretensions to adulthood that, in effect, render her a more honest adult than most real adults -- that the narrator of the story seems to find the most interesting and appealing. As the girl is
Catcher in the Rye Troubled Teen Kicked out of Pency Prep, Rejects Adult World, Seeks Meaning in NY Gordon's Books in Manhattan 212-555-READSixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield, who lost his fencing team's equipment on a New York City subway -- and caused the match to be cancelled -- has been dismissed from Pency Prep and is seeking emotional and psychological shelter in New York. Caulfield, still grieving over the death of his ten-year-old brother Allie
Bird in the House and the Catcher in the Rye Both J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye and Margaret Laurence's collection of interrelated stories A Bird in the House highlight the struggles of the main characters as they come of age in unforgiving times with largely unsympathetic families, but the ways in which either character deals with these issues differ greatly, and comparing the two will help to