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Originally Posted by Glice
I actually have the Death of an Author in my lap as we speak.
And, while I kind of share your reservations, I think the more important skill in Humanities Undergraduates is to be able to assimilate and explain their ideas. I once thought I'd come up with a peerless criticism of Adorno; in retrospect, I was just a jumped-up twat. The problem is that the immediate temptation is to be a giant-killer, but that comes later - or, more likely, not at all, seeing as most academics never seriously confront the people to whom they are opposed. Get your lecturers down the pub, then see how they feel...
Also, Barthes is beyond criticism. People fall in love with him. It's like slagging off the Beatles - no matter how strongly you feel, just keep your trap shut.
Edit: to Lurker.
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Haha really!? Yeah maybe it was unwise of me to be so critical in an essay for someone who I knew probably wouldn't be sympathetic to my view. I just find it incredibly frustrating. I spent last sitting in seminars listening to people and the sem leader speaking and thinking "there's wrong with all (or a lot) of this but I can't quite put my finger on what it is" and then I would realise it was because they weren't saying anything at all.
I can't remember what I said in the essay and I don't have the Death of the Author with me so I can't be sure but I think part of my criticism was his kind of intertextualist (intertextuality being a useless, damaging to criticism and unprovable/unfalsifiable idea) idea that all texts we read are somehow made up of other texts we have read.
Last year it would have been impossible to get my lecturers down the pub. The whole of first had the same lectures and the number of students is fucking huge. This year, maybe...