Is The Author Dead?

With the publication of Roland Barthes' article The Death of the Author in 1968, the traditional way of text analysis met with brutal subversion. The author no longer enjoys his unchallengeable status and becomes "useless" the moment he finishes the text. When the literary view was borrowed into translation studies, it brought about a strong repercussion: the translator walked out of the author's shadow and began to exercise his power of interpreting the text independently. The excessive elevation of the translator's position led to a considerable confusion in the understanding of the translating process. When the translator came to stagnancy in the translation of some texts, especially the texts that contain a rich reservoir of underlying meanings, he began to ask himself: Is the author really dead? The paper argues against the view by finding out its origins and analyzing its backing theories — post-structuralism and deconstructionism. With further support from concrete examples in real translation practices, it points out that the author is not dead in the process of translation. It goes on to explore the translator's role in the translation process in the light of his relationship with the author. In conclusion, the paper proposes that the translated text is the product of the negotiation between the author and the translator through the ST (source text).