From ‘Work’ to ‘Text’
According to Roland Barthes, it is language that speaks and not the author who no longer determines meaning. Consequences: We no longer talk about works but texts.
“It is now known that a text is not a line of words realising a single ‘theological’ meaning (the ‘message’ of the Author-God) but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash. The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture.” Barthes, “The Death of the Author.”