What is "The Death of the Author" and why has it been so influential in literary criticism?

"The Death of The Author" is a literary-critical concept popularised by Roland Barthes. In his 1967 essay of the same name, Barthes argues that a text's meaning is not stable within it, ready to be discovered by the reader, but generated in our minds as we read. When reading a text and trying to work out its meaning, we should not pay too much attention to the author's biographical background, political beliefs, or even direct statements they have made about their intentions in writing the work we are now reading. The author is, theoretically, 'dead' and we are free as readers to interpret the text however we like.Barthes' theory was influential because it marked a break from the historicist and biographical literary criticism popular since the Victorian era. No longer were critics expected to interpret what the author intended and could instead write radical political, philosophical, and psychological responses to texts. Barthes' theory was the controversial beginning of literary criticism as we know it. For some it cleared a space for exciting and new interpretations of familiar works, while others continue to see it as a desabilisation of criticism as a practice - undermining the rigour of biographical crit in favour of wild political conjectures that stray from the text. This debate rages on and would make an excellent topic for an exam essay or coursework on literary theory.