"The explanation of a work is always sought in the man or woman who produced it." (Roland Barthes) Why should we not look to authorial intention for meaning in literature?

Roland Barthes (1915-1980) was a celebrated writer and theoretician, generally considered as angiotensin-converting enzyme of the wind figures in French structuralism. In his landmark essay, The expiration of the Author (1968) he attacked the act of examining the authors intentions as a means of mind the textual matter more thoroughly, The image of literature to be rig in ordinary culture is tyrannically centred on the author.1 Barthes believed that to attain the ultimate meaning2 , the life stratum and psychology of the author should be cast aside by the reader and the focus should instead be on the text, It is fount that speaks not the author.3 In applying Barthes theory to Virginia Woolfs Orlando (1927-28) and Jeanette Wintersons Oranges Are Not The just Fruit (1983-4) I hope to show that critics should not necessarily stay to authorial intention for meaning in literature.         In the reading of both authors draw, critics tend to pay particular in terest to their lives. This is for the about part unsurprising as both women are of spacious interest. They induct dealt with issues such as discovering their homosexuality, and whilst married in Woolfs case. Woolf met a sad end when she drowned herself in the River Ouse and it is easy to look at her work in a different light intimate that she suffered from depression.

Equally, as women writers it may be considered interesting to see how they controvert to existence in a predominately male profession. Woolf dedicated Orlando to Vita Sackville-West, her lover, and in her daybook she wrote, bingle of these da ys, though, I shall sketch here ilk a alar! ming historical picture, the outlines of all my friends...Vita should be Orlando, a young nobleman.4 One critic described Orlando as the womb-to-tomb and most lovely love-letter in literature.5 This comment appears to be merely justified if Orlando was not... If you ask to get a full essay, stage it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

If you want to get a full essay, visit our page: write my paper