The myth of the ‘author’

Contemplate the myth of the ‘author’ by watching an biographical film on an artist (Here is a link of recent films https://screenrant.com/best-artist-biopics-ranked-imdb/ as well as Pollack (2000), I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), Basquiat (1996), Big Eyes (2014), and The Danish Girl (2015) also come to mind but can be anything you choose). Based on our reading of Barthes’ “The Death of the Author,” Gates Jr.’s “Writing, Race, and the Difference it Makes,” as well as supplementary readings that I’ve included from Foucault, Katz, and Wolff, consider the nature of authorship based on this reading of the film. What kind of relationship does the film construct between the author/artist and their work? Discuss the role of the artist’s biography in the experience of their artwork. Level of a critique of the biopic in general based on your understanding of these readings and consider the ways the film does (or does not) construct an experience of art vis-à-vis an experience of the person who made it.