The Role of the Reader in Post-Structuralist Approaches
Reading a text and trying to understand it has always been a riddle for many years and different kinds of theories have been suggested. In the 20th century ,among other theories, we witness the post-structuralist impact on reading a text. To be more specific, we should define what post-structuralism means. In general, post-structuralism is about rejecting one absolute truth and instead, laying different perspectives and multiplicity on a text. In this theory we see that post-structuralists give importance to the reader rather than the author on interpreting a text. The role of the reader can be analyzed within reader-response theory, psychoanalytic approach and feminism.
Before dealing with the concept “the death of the author”, it would be useful to have a brief look at how the other schools and theories are positioned within these issues. Some schools attach priority to the author, some advocates the text and some, as we talk about throughout this essay, insist on “the birth of the reader”. In Structuralism the importance of the reader seems to be underestimated since a text cannot be constituted without an author. What he /she has been going through, how the political, cultural and social circumstances are surrounded around him, how his/her background is etc…. all have a determining power during the writing process and thus since he/she affected by these circumstances constructs the text , the author is the most important factor. There are other schools in which the text is seen as the key figure such as in New Criticism. New criticism suggests that everything about the author already exists in the text, that there is nothing outside the text and we do not need any external information .As stated in “intentional fallacy” principle formed by W.K Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley, “the design or intention of the author is neither available nor desirable as a standard for...