There is a complexity to contemporary book cover illustrations of historical book novels that shows that ‘the removal of the author is not merely an historical fact or an act of writing’.
The death of the author comes through on two different occasions with two different contexts, first of all with any historical book we have already lost the author's personal intention 100’s of years before the illustrator of the novel is even alive. The illustrator's own interpretation of the book in the creation of the cover loses meaning as soon as it’s published because in modern society the focus leans more to the reader’s interpretation more than the author and the artist’s personal intentions.
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| Fig 1 |
I’ve chosen to use Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as
my example. Whatever her own opinion or interpretation of her work has been
completely discarded in the last 60-70 years.
‘ Once the Author is removed the claim to decipher the text becomes
quite futile’ which is why you see the focus of the novel as depicted in this
illustration by Mara McAfee shift to Adam; Frankenstein’s monster instead of
what it used to be Dr Frankenstein and his need to control mortality and
they’re for desperate bid for god hood. However even this view can only be seen
as my own as my education raised me to believe that finding deeper more complex
meaning in the writings was more important than the author's own meaning.
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| Fig 2 |
In the original print of
Frankenstein there is no imagery or visual interpretation about what could be
happening within the book. That is because ‘Classic criticism has never paid
attention to the reader; for it, the writer is the only person in literature’
because of this there is ‘no need’ for illustration on the book cover as it
would mean an artist interpretation and summarising the book into one particular
image and thus the authors intentions become insignificant, intended or
not.
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| Fig 3 |
The only image you may find
in older books of frankenstein would have work similar to this, an almost literal interpretation of the
script on the opposing page, which went through Mary Shelley's own assessment
to make sure it did not alternate from what she wanted to say ‘the Author had
been found the text explained- victory to the critic.’ Everything was to be
derived only from Shelley's personal interpretation of the book. However even though all the imagery was supposed to mimic the author centric ideology by
adding the images you have already begun to kill the author. People will
interpret expressions and body language how they wish and again once something
is published and distributed to the larger world there will always be, those
who ignore the original authors interpretations of their work.
The difference between Frankenstein
historically with its historical illustrations and imagery against Frankenstein
in modern context with contemporary illustration is the way we deal with the concept of the death of the author theory in relation to Mary Shelley's work which ‘consciously or unconsciously, reflects
our own position in time’
Bibliography
Barthes, R. (1968) 'The Death of the Author', London, Fontana.
Carr, E.H. (1961) 'What is History', Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. (History)
Fig 1: McAfee, Mara (1976) 'Frankenstein' [Book Cover]
Fig 2: N/A (1818) 'Frankenstein' [Book Cover]
Fig 3 N/A (1831) 'Frankenstein' [Internal book illustration]
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