We would all do well to go back and re-read Roland Barthes’ essay from time to time, whether we teach or preach (or both or neither) professionally or personally…

Death of the Author – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: “Readers must thus separate a literary work from its creator in order to liberate the text from interpretive tyranny (a notion similar to Erich Auerbach’s discussion of narrative tyranny in Biblical parables). Each piece of writing contains multiple layers and meanings. In a well-known quotation, Barthes draws an analogy between text and textiles, declaring that a “text is a tissue [or fabric] of quotations,” drawn from “innumerable centers of culture,” rather than from one, individual experience. The essential meaning of a work depends on the impressions of the reader, rather than the “passions” or “tastes” of the writer; “a text’s unity lies not in its origins,” or its creator, “but in its destination,” or its audience.”

Of course, Foucault et al are correct when he points out that the “author function” of a text can be valuable as a classifying lens or principle within a certain formation of a text, however that pendulum seems to swing a little too far out of period when his point is stressed.