Authors-- They're Important IF You Want Them to Be??

Although I agree that audiences can create their own meanings out of texts, the grand declaration of "The Death of the Author" is the pinnacle of hypocracy and hubris. It does seem that for someone to declare the death of anything, they're assuming a right to pronounce this moratorium over the views of all others.

As mentioned in the Maire ni Fhlathuin reading this week, a construction of the author can be made through his/her texts. I agree with this assertion and so it doesn't come to any surprise to me that marginalized groups are saying "HEY! Not so fast! Let US decide what's dead or not!"

However, whenever we start discussing texts in terms of Black Studies, Women's Studies, Queer Studies, I find myself bristling as it feels to me that the only way for some people to have their work discussed at all is if they place their work within the context of other texts whose authors share a limited commonality. That to me, isn't a well-informed way to categorize texts.

As stated in our assignment this week: "There is often the added assumption that readers can glimpse more than just the 'creative genius' at work, but that they can also read larger categories such as race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality etc as emanating from these works." Maybe so, but I don't think that's necessarily true.

Whenever I've had a man ask me "Why do women do that? " (whatever "that" is), I usually can't answer the question because "that" is usually something not all women do. I've had a British friend tell me that "The British do A and don't do B." Well, I've got a lot of British friends and I know from experience that her statements don't fit the behaviors of all and so I conclude she can't possibly speak for all British citizens. Her comments usually mean that "SHE does A and doesn't do B."

A writer who happens to be an African-American male may write a particular text not primarily because he's a person of color, but maybe because he's a particular individual. Does Bill Cosby speak for all Afr-Am people? Does Al Sharpton? Jesse Jackson? Chris Rock?

To infer that a reason an author writes a particular work in a particular way is because they are x, y or z leaves me with a feeling of claustrophobia. To delineate the merit or study of work by the background, sexuality or race of its author I think further marginalizes people, since it would appear we're not studying the work within a more centralized discourse.

To think that the reason I write any particular type of text is merely because of my race, nationality, gender, or sexual preference only tells part of the story. I write what I write because I am who I am-- which is all of the above AND more!

I say, forget the delineations! All authors are individuals with individual backgrounds, individual perspectives and individual experiences and their work should be read from that perspective and with that assumption.