Beyond the Algorithmic Scriptor: Generative AI, Reader Interpretation, and the Limits of Barthes’s "Death of the Author"

Roland Barthes argued that author’s identity and intentions are less important in any text, suggesting that the actual literary meaning is created by the reader of the text. Generative Artificial intelligence (AI) makes Barthes’s concept of "Death of the Author" a reality, by producing brilliant as well as complex prose without biological subjectivity, or human creative intent. However, contemporary literary studies have mainly focused on computational mechanics, disputes regarding copyrights, and stylistic mimicry. This creates a crucial research gap in understanding that how human mind or reader hermeneutics work when the author of the text is a non- human element and is algorithmic. This study addresses this critical theoretical omission. Main objectives of the research include examining how algorithmic generation challenges traditional human written texts, evaluation of the reader’s reaction to authorial absence, and finally, exploration of the fact that why readers are used to ask who or what controls the discourse. Grounded in in post-structuralist critique, this paper focuses on re-evaluation of Barthesian reader-response theory with computational textuality. The findings indicates that readers find it difficult to interpret the text completely due to absence of actual human author or the intention behind it. They naturally look for meanings, purpose, or intention to guide their interpretation. AI shows that readers still expect a human intention behind every text they read, suggesting that meaningful literary interpretation depends upon the connection between reader and the author. People still lack empathy, sympathy and connection towards AI generated works.