introduction – An Unused Frequency

In this chapter I will present the reader with a number of ways we can approach the concept of the author, and how to critically deconstruct and analyze it. All the methods I mention here are viable and used in media and art analysis. I will present the various methods in a rough historical order.

Note that, just as my other texts in this series, this chapter is simply meant as an introduction to the topic, and a way to start learning more about the media we all love to enjoy.

The scribe and the codex

Without going too far back, but still getting some context to the rest of the text, I will start by quickly describing how scribes worked in medieval Europe and how these scribes created their codexes, texts created to be specifically made for a single customer’s needs. A scribe was foten, but not always employed by a monestary, and were tasked to copy texts for reditrtbuition and selling. Some texts were copied as is, but many texts were made out of materials from various diferent texts, to create compilations of certain topics.

These compilations of knowledge could contain anything from poetry, to history and philosophy and alchemy. It was not uncommon for historical or mythical events to be subtly changed to give the contractor’s family a bigger role in the commissioned version.(Woodmansee, 1994). More importantly were these books seen as objects in and of themselves Many of these texts that were sold, were carefully and lovingly edited and decorated by the scribe or one of the scribes colleagues. These codexes as a result were created as unique one of a kind items. These items were created in a communal setting, with a clear tradition and history behind their creation (Barthes, 1968).

There were of course well known named authors and scholars in medieval and renaissance Europe, though much less before the introduction to the printed word. These writers would publish under their own name, and have their works copied and circulated by the above mentioned scribes. Attributing one’s findings and research to a more well known, or even mythical figure was also far from unheard of either

I bring this up primarily as a background for what we will discuss later on in the chapter, that what we imagine as the writer and the artist is a relatively new invention all things considered. What is of most import to this discussion is the fact that the author, creator of the text, and the text itself was not nearly as closely entwined as they are today.

The genius and the craftsperson

During the late medieval and renaissance period, a new image of the creator and artist started to arise. The individual changed from a craftsperson that has worked within a tradition of art and craftsmanship to create singulair items, into a genius creaing series of texts or works. This new creative figure worked in isolation, and whatever they created, was from their own mind, or divine inspiration. This is in stark contrast to the more collectively driven bardic and craftsman traditions of past artistic endeavors (Barthes, 1968).

Ownership of the art also moved from the owner of the piece, to the originator of said piece. This has a number of reasons, as well as ramifications, but we are interested in two of these today, intellectual property rights, and canon forming (Barthes, 1968).

By strengthening the image of the writer as a genius, of one with almost divine inspiration, could works be more tightly tied to them. This meant that a specific work of art was seen as the unique and singulair creation of the genius artist, rather then the continuation of a comunal tradition. By tying the work to a singular person, can more strict control over production and distribution be justified (Barthes, 1968, Woodmansee, 1994). The elevation of the creator of art, from a mere craftsperson to one of an artist and genius also helped funding in a landscape where patronage from wealthy nobles and business men became less and less available.

The author and their environment

We would today argue that no creator exists in a vacuum, and this approach aims at understanding the text and the creator from their contemporary history. Every written word can, acording to this methond be placed within a certain context, that can, at least partly explain why the work turned out the way it did. J.R.R Tolkien’s works can for example be contextualized by his dramatic experiences fighting in world war 1, where he got a first hand experience of the brutal war machine.

We must always be weary in that when making these sorts of analyses we can not fully escape our own biases. Our knowledge and lived experiences will inevitably lead us to focus on certain aspects of the author’s experiences over others. With that said, a thorough investigation, and immersion into the context of a work’s creation, can open up a more rich and detailed understanding of the text you are taking in.

“Death of the author”

The phrase “Death of the author” refers to an essay by French literary scientist Roland Barthes (1915 – 1980) by the same name . This essay formed the basis of a new form of analysis that discards the agency and creative power of the writer, in order to move the text to the forefront of the analysis. The arguments layed forward, and that are often used in modern literary criticism can be laid out like this. The authorial intent of a text can take two forms. They can either:

a) Be apparent in the text, and as a result, it would be pointless to ask the author, since the reader can discern it themselves.

b) Not apparent in the text, and as a result, was the author unable to bring forth their intention, and as a result, it is not relevant to the text.

This removes the focus of analysation and interpretation from the author, and moves it to the reader themselves. No longer would the writer have the utmost say in what and how their works conveyed (Barthes, 1968. Woodmansee, 1994). These ideas tie closely into the idea of sender-message-receiver I discussed in the previous chapter.

To give a practical example. Will Wright, the creator of the series of video games, the Sims has argued that he did not create the game The Sims 1 in order to parody the modern American dream. I would argue, and many others have, that this is just what Will Wright did. I would argue that the focus on the acquisition of material things, chasing careers, and eventually owning the biggest house on the block, neatly transfers into a cynical, if lighthearted take on the capitalist American dream.

This method does have several advantages, primarily by removing anything between you as a reader, and the text itself, at least for as far as that is possible. I want to once again reiterate that allowing yourself to take the author, and their lived experiences into account, will also equally lead to interesting discoveries about the text in question.

Final thoughts

I have with this chapter presented a few ways one may look at the concept of the author and how we might understand them in relation to their work. The author has in this text gone from being a craftsperson or the creation of a text, to isolated genius, to being a genius that wads non the less influenced to their environment, to once again stepping down and giving the text the ultimate center stage.

All these methods do have their uses, and I wish that my readers will see these, not as competing theories, but rather as tools that can be applied to different problems when it comes to thinking about art and media. In the next chapter we will add even more tools to this theoretical toolbox.

Sources and further reading

Barthes, R. The Death of the Author 1968 – University Handout

Woodmansee, M. (1994). The author, Art, and the market: Rereading the history of aesthetics. Columbia University Press.

This series will be a quick introduction to the concepts and goals of media literacy, as well as why it is important to everyday life. This series will aim to answer three questions, as well as to arm the reader with a powerful set of tools to use in their everyday contact with a wide variety of media formas.

What is media literacy and why does it matter?

The skill of media literacy enables someone to critically evaluate, take in and create different forms of media. This skill allows the individual to detect biases, goals and intentions of the piece of media in front of them. The most prominent goal of media literacy education is to help the student to acquire knowledge of, and the ability to detect propaganda, as well as ideologically and emotionally changed material. This will allow the consumer to make active choices in their interaction with the media in questions.

Being fluent in media literacy also allows an individual to get more out of the media they consume. By becoming aware of trends and tropes, as well as thinking critically about the media we consume, will we be able to detect biases in our society, as well as within ourselves. By becoming aware of these biases can we make more informed choices on what we as individuals wish to support, or work against. In this way is media literacy a powerful tool in citizen awareness and the spread and protection of human rights and democracy.

Even though you have no interest in critically analysing texts professionally, you can still gain great advantages from being able to watch media with a more critical viewpoint. As mentioned before can these tools also be used on news, political debates or any other form of discourse that contains a form of message. Because of my educational background in literary studies, I have chosen to give these lessons and examples using pop culture, but these skills can be deployed in any of the above areas as well.

The Sender, the message and the receiver

We will focus on the dichotomy of the sender, or creator of the message, the message itself, the recipient, as well as how this relationship changes in various media forms. The sender in this equation is the creator of the message. This sender can be explicitly named and stated, or they can be implicit or implied. What is important is that there will always be a sender for a message to come into being, even if they are obscure or abstracted away.

The message in this context, is the very media itself, as well as the content that this piece of media is communication (more about this distinction later). Without this message, as well as the media that transports it, would communication not be possible. I am going to use the term Text in this series to describe a form of media that explicitly carries a message. In other words any form of media, like a book or a video game that sets out to communicate a set idea or message.

Finally we have the receiver or reader, the target for the message. A receiver is always implied, as even a message sent to no one in particular will have an intended recipient in order to be complete. Traditional communications theory presented the receiver as a passive and solely receptive part of this equation. Later studies centred the receiver or reader as an active participant in not only decoding the meaning of the message, but also as an active creator of meaning.

One theory holds that a message only gets a meaning once it is interpreted by a receiver. With the advent of social media and the web 2.0 has the lines between sender message and receiver, as the receiver is now able to directly interact with the message and the sender in the form of chat messages and comment fields and ratings. The one way communication has instead become a two way communication. A later chapter will deal exclusively with how these forms of participatory forms of communication have changed how we think about media literacy and communication in general.

Sender and intention

While consuming media is it fruitful to be aware of the fact that there is always a sender at the other end of the line, be that implicit or explicit. An explicit sender in this context would be a named author, creator or brand that is presented in the media itself. An implicit sender will be harder to detect, but is no longer present in order for the message to be sent, as discussed above.

It is a fruitful practice to analyse and try and discern the intended message of the sender. Furthermore can it be a good exercise to consider if the intended message is:
a) The sender being presented directly.
b) The sender that ends up coming across to the reviver.
c) The sender that is indirectly being presented.

By thinking critically about the sender and the intention of sending it, can we grasp a deeper understanding of the text itself. It is important that every intentional message has some form of sender. The goals, abilities and biases of this sender are all important parts of deconstruction and analysing a text.

When analysing a text, is it important to keep in mind that we are very rarely, if ever able to get to the actual intention of the sender, and often have to make due with deconstructing the meanings that can be found within the text itself. With this said, can it be a reading and informative exercise to, if the sender is known to you, investigate the context and social norms in which the sender worked. Understanding the context in which a person or team of people worked, might help us understand the messages they send out in the world.

The media and its content

I will give much time in this series to discuss various forms of texts, and how the makeup of these texts changes how they function, and how we interact with them. Our approach, even if its subconscious will naturally be different between a TV show, a film and a newspaper or a song. By understanding the forms and rules that each media form follows, can we gain a deeper appreciation for the text in front of us, as well as to start. To begin with we will focus on how these texts are traditionally understood, and we will later move on to more post structuralism approaches to creating and understanding texts.

Just as when discussing the sender, much each piece of media can be understood with its one frame of references and context. Nothing is after all, created in a bubble, and it’s important to try and understand where, when and how a text was created. It is equally important to be aware of our own biases, frames of references and prior experiences. Our world-views, opinions and experiences are very much going to colour our perception of a text. This is in and of itself not a bad thing, as long as we are aware that we are indeed colouring our perceptions of the thing we are examining.

Conclusions

These are a few of the topics that this series will include, and I will expand it as times goes on. For now this series is simply meant to be an introduction, and to aid in further reading and research in the subject of media literacy. The primary goal of this series is to make my readers more media savvy, as well as allow them to get more out of the media we all love to consume. This knowledge will also be useful to you in contexts out of pop culture and other entertainment.

This introductory chapter is a simple and quick start, as a way of dipping our toes into a rather large and complex topic that I will discuss over the coming months. I hope you are excited to go on this adventure with me!

Category: introduction

Media literacy 101, part 2, The author