417.7 - Death of the author

CIM 417 Week 7

While Death of the Author is something I studied 20 years ago, I dont think i "got it" as deeply as I do now. It's fascinating how this concept has changed in my mind, and would be worth dissecting again, when time is not a factor.

One idea that immediately came to mind was that of separating the art from the artist has changed in my mind, when its not personal to me, its easy to say "of course you should" which were my thoughts back then. But when its personal, thats a lot harder said than done. This of course relates around JK Rowlings vs Harry Potter. While a seminal novel in my upbringing, it shocked me in 2019 when JK came out as a transphobe. I as an adolecent didnt pick up on contentious themes that were present in the books all along, and now, blatently obvious. How can I separate someone who is so dismissive of my friends with a novel that is so ingrained in my (culture)?

Then the intertextuality that these books spawned, and role of the reader.

I'm not sure of my thoughts around all this yet, but its definitely something to explore further. But there is definitely something more to be said about collaborative art - The Harry potter movies and games were not JUST JK, thousands of artists contributed to created these movies, and JK was is not an island, she has taken influence from many fantasy works to create her book. Then look at Twilight!