Question: Analyze "The Death of the Author" as an essay, which support post structuralist view of author.
Answer: "the Death of the Author" is an essay written by Ronald Barthes. He is one of the post- structuralist. Post structuralism emerged in France in the late 1960s. The two figures most closely associated with this emergence are Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida. "The Death of the Author"(1968) which is the turning point, round which Barthes turns from structuralism to post structuralism.
By the mid 20th century, there were a number of structural theories of human existence. In the study of language, the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) suggested that meaning was to be found within the structure of a whole language rather than in the analysis of individual words. In the 1960s, the structurailst movement, based on France, attempted to synthesise the ideas of Marx, Freud and Saussure. The French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault came to seen as the most important representative of the post structuralist movement. He agreed that language and society were shaped by rule-governed systems. Jacques Derrida developed deconstruction as a technique for uncovering the multiple interpretations of texts. Influenced by Heidegger and Nietzsche of a final and complete interpretation is impossible. Heidegger's idea about language "language speaks us," rather than that we speak language. We do not originate language; we inhabit a structure that enables us to speak; what we misperceive as our originality is simply our recombination of some of the elements in the pre existing system. So that every text and every sentence we speak or write is made up of the "already written"
"The Death of the Author"(1968) which is the 'hinge' round which Barthes turns from structuralism to post structuralism. In this essay, he announces the death of the author which is a rhetorical way of asserting the independence of literary text and its immunity to the possibility of being unified or limited by any notion of what the author might have intended or crafted into the work. This essay makes a declaration of radical textual independence. The work is not determined by intention or context. The text is free by its vary nature of all such restraints. Hence, as Barthes says in this essay, the death if the author is the birth of thee author. so the difference between the1966 essay and the 1973 book is a shift of attention from the text seen as something produced by the reader. Barthes also says in the absence of an author, the claim to decipher a text becomes futile.
Post structuralists accused structuralists of not following through the implications of the views about language on which their intellectual system is based. We saw a main characteristic view of post structuralism is the notion that language does not just reflect or record the world. We can say it shapes it so that how we see is what we see. The post structuralist maintains that the consequences of this belief are that we enter a universe of radical uncertainty, since we can have no access to any fixed landmark which is beyond linguistic processing, and hence we have no certain standard by which to measure anything.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Kaiser Haq’s Interview
Interviewed time: 12.00 p.m
Interviewed Date: 14th April’ 2008
Kaiser Haq is one of the renowned poets in Bangladesh who writes in English. He has born in Dhaka. He educated at the University of Dhaka and he took the Ph. D Degree from Warwick University in English Literature as a Commonwealth Scholar. He is a poet, editor, essayist and translator as well.
We personally went to Kaise Haq and spent some time with him and had a little chat with him about some issues related to him, it was kind of an interview. We asked him some questions and he gave us very clear answer. We have given the total discussion in the below.
Q. when did u started writing poetry sir?
Ans: I started writing at the age of 16/17.
Q. Sir we have read some poetry of yours but they are not like other poems, I mean they are not in the style that we normally read. Is it your own style that you have created?
Ans: Obviously it is a different style but this type of poetry first written by a Goan poet named Joseph Fuetatl in 19 century. An Indian poet named Simi also wrote six poems in this style. I have written some comic poems in this style but you can write some serious poems and you can write serious poems in this style. I have written four poems in this style and want to write five more because the Goan poet he wrote eight poems in this style so I want to exceed his number of poems.
Q. Sir do you have any plan to write novel or any kind of fiction?
Ans: No I don’t. I tried to write fiction and wrote one but after that I realize that fiction is not for me.
Q. Sir could you please tell me what you wanted to mean in “O Bhairavi”, I mean what is the message?
Ans: Here I talked about a female and romance that I have taken from Tantrisism. The poem talks about no normal fulfillment.
Q. Sir when you write a poem that times you must have a structure in your mind to write the poem. So sir what structure do you follow while you are writing?
Ans: Structure differs. Poet should not be written in regret forms. There are some magic happens when you are writing. Most of the 20th century poets write in free verse.
Q. Sir as we all know that you are not only a poet, you are also a editor, essayist and translator, so sir when you want to translate any one’s poetry don’t you have to take permission from that person?
Ans: Yes, one has to take permission to translate any person’s poem, but in Bangladesh people don’t follow this rule.
Q. What do you think about reader in Bangladesh, how much do they like poems in English?
Ans: Readership is very low in Bangladesh both in Bangla and English. Collection of poem’s books don’t sale that much. Publishers publish 200 copies of poetry book of specific poet. In America publishers publish 1000 and1000 copies of poetry books.
Q. Sir you have seen some young writers who write poems in English in a magazine Monsoon Letters, so what do you think about them, what are the things they are lacking in their poetry?
Ans: They have read very seriously, there is no other option then reading and they should try different style.
Q. What do u think about the future of poetry in English in Bangladesh?
Ans: poetry you can’t predict, fiction is going in a parallel way. Everything has negative and positive but the readership of poetry is growing in Bangladesh.
Interviewed Date: 14th April’ 2008
Kaiser Haq is one of the renowned poets in Bangladesh who writes in English. He has born in Dhaka. He educated at the University of Dhaka and he took the Ph. D Degree from Warwick University in English Literature as a Commonwealth Scholar. He is a poet, editor, essayist and translator as well.
We personally went to Kaise Haq and spent some time with him and had a little chat with him about some issues related to him, it was kind of an interview. We asked him some questions and he gave us very clear answer. We have given the total discussion in the below.
Q. when did u started writing poetry sir?
Ans: I started writing at the age of 16/17.
Q. Sir we have read some poetry of yours but they are not like other poems, I mean they are not in the style that we normally read. Is it your own style that you have created?
Ans: Obviously it is a different style but this type of poetry first written by a Goan poet named Joseph Fuetatl in 19 century. An Indian poet named Simi also wrote six poems in this style. I have written some comic poems in this style but you can write some serious poems and you can write serious poems in this style. I have written four poems in this style and want to write five more because the Goan poet he wrote eight poems in this style so I want to exceed his number of poems.
Q. Sir do you have any plan to write novel or any kind of fiction?
Ans: No I don’t. I tried to write fiction and wrote one but after that I realize that fiction is not for me.
Q. Sir could you please tell me what you wanted to mean in “O Bhairavi”, I mean what is the message?
Ans: Here I talked about a female and romance that I have taken from Tantrisism. The poem talks about no normal fulfillment.
Q. Sir when you write a poem that times you must have a structure in your mind to write the poem. So sir what structure do you follow while you are writing?
Ans: Structure differs. Poet should not be written in regret forms. There are some magic happens when you are writing. Most of the 20th century poets write in free verse.
Q. Sir as we all know that you are not only a poet, you are also a editor, essayist and translator, so sir when you want to translate any one’s poetry don’t you have to take permission from that person?
Ans: Yes, one has to take permission to translate any person’s poem, but in Bangladesh people don’t follow this rule.
Q. What do you think about reader in Bangladesh, how much do they like poems in English?
Ans: Readership is very low in Bangladesh both in Bangla and English. Collection of poem’s books don’t sale that much. Publishers publish 200 copies of poetry book of specific poet. In America publishers publish 1000 and1000 copies of poetry books.
Q. Sir you have seen some young writers who write poems in English in a magazine Monsoon Letters, so what do you think about them, what are the things they are lacking in their poetry?
Ans: They have read very seriously, there is no other option then reading and they should try different style.
Q. What do u think about the future of poetry in English in Bangladesh?
Ans: poetry you can’t predict, fiction is going in a parallel way. Everything has negative and positive but the readership of poetry is growing in Bangladesh.
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