There is no death of the author when the author is very much alive and literally trying to exterminate people ok? Ok
Also when the art itself, completely separated from the artist, is still fucking racist. Lmfao
death of the author is about literary analysis, putting aside the things you know about what the author intended or didn’t to interpret and understand the text on its own. it removes the special status of the author’s own understanding of the piece for reasons that are outlined in the original essay “Le Morte d’Auteur” by Roland Barthes. The essay claims that a work of literature (or really any piece of art) has no meaning until it is read, and that the meanings are informed by countless cultural inputs that all converge on one point: the reader.
it is NOT about “separating art from the artist” or whatever little dorks need to tell themselves to feel good about liking the transphobic media mogul’s racist wizard books.
What death of the author IS NOT:
"JKR may be an abhorrent person who is actively campaigning against minority groups having human rights, but since you can enjoy her children's series without knowing that, I think we should just let people enjoy them in peace, never mind the fact that the royalties from those books are funding her anti-human rights campaign in the UK."
What death of the author IS:
"Even if JKR now claims that she did not have racist intentions when she wrote this pro-slavery subplot, or antisemitic intentions when she created this fictional race of banking goblins, or anti-Irish intentions when she made this Irish joke-character associated with expositions, or transphobic and sexist intentions when she repeatedly described these villainous female characters in terms of having masculine physical traits, we can still confidently say that her children's series contains racist, antisemitic, anti-Irish, transphobic, and sexist features. We should judge her works by what is actually in them, and not with her post hoc rationalizations for why all of these features are supposedly not as bad as they look on paper."