#yeah that'll do

Some quick keywords:

Text - the piece of media being discussed (doesn't have to be written, Text is used to describe anything that literary theory is being applied to. I once wrote an essay treating a pedestrian crossing as a Text by applying psychoanalytical theory to it. Anything can be a Text).

Author - The creator of the Text. Can be applied collectively.

Reader - person consuming and engaging with the Text.

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A little history; The name 'Death of the Author' comes from an essay by a french Literary critic and theorist (Roland Barthes), written back in 1967. The going literary theory at the time was very Authorial Intent focused, and the essay speaks out against that.

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So, your summary of 'after a work is published the readers are free to interpret as they please' is the modern, general understanding of the theory. Barthes' original theory takes that a bit further. It's not that Readers are free to interpret as they please, it's Readers are creating a version of the Text as they read it and therefore have just as much authority to interpret as the Author.

Basically, just as an Author will bring their own biases and experiences and understandings to a Text when they are creating it, a Reader does all of that too as they read it. The Text exists outside of both of those interpretations, but it is informed equally by them.

The Text is it's own thing, it exists purely in the moment it is consumed.

(Note that I don't think this is a *perfect* theory. I think all the best literary analysis comes from taking elements of different theories and applying the parts that work and disregarding the parts that don't).

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My best understanding of the idea that the Author is Dead, not just being ignored, is to think of it this way:

If we are defined by the collective results of our experiences/memories, we are constantly becoming a new person with every experience that we collect. The Author is Dead because the person that created that Text no longer exists, they have grown and changed and collected new experiences. An Author may have had specific intentions when creating a Text, but the Author *becomes* a Reader of their own Text the moment it is complete, because the act of creation is an experience and it changes you to do it.

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So how do I apply this to fandom (and my own writing)?

People have spoken a lot about creator/character separation recently, and it's basically that. The creators are the Authors, they have created a Text (the character) and now as Readers we get to do whatever the hell we want with the characters.

I also use it when faced with what is usually called Word of God content - the extra bits of information given outside of the main content. (ie streams, tweets, etc). To me, this is just bonus stuff that, if you want to use it to inform your understanding of canon then that's great, but it has no more weight of authority than an interpretation that is not informed by that extra content.

(And don't get me wrong, I LOVE extra content. I'd be a hypocrite not to, given I have made big lore dump tumblr posts for my own fics. But if people read my works and not the lore dumps and come up with their own interpretation, then that is just as valid).

In terms of my own writing, I also find the theory kind of liberating.

The Author is Dead. The me that I was when I wrote what I wrote is gone, and I have grown and changed since then. I get to look back at my own work not as an Author, but as a Reader. it just feels like less pressure, sometimes, to know that once the thing you are creating has been created, you get to see it through different eyes.

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I am going to finish this long ramble by linking this video essay by Lindsay Ellis (with the note that I haven't rewatched it recently, but I remember it being a very good and clear explanation of the topic, with Lindsay's fantastic deadpan humour).