Barthes Was Wrong
This article challenges Roland Barthes’ famous notion of ‘The Death of the Author,’ arguing instead that the author is very much alive and in a dialogic relationship with the reader. Drawing upon Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories of dialogism and polyphony, the article posits that texts are living entities shaped by an ongoing conversation between the author’s intent and the reader’s interpretation. Far from diminishing the role of the author, this dialogic approach enriches our understanding of texts as dynamic spaces for mutual meaning-making.