A Critical Analyze of Self-Portrait with an Approach to the Theory of "Death of the Author"

The analytical approach of this article is the study of self-portrait in painting and photography with a critical insight into the theory of Roland Barthes' "Death of the Author". In this research, as self-portrait is the representation of the author himself, this question is raised: "Does the theory of Roland Barthes' "Death of the Author" in the pictures of self-portrait, which is an individualized and author-oriented art, have the necessary efficiency in removing the author? In answering this question "first of all" the theory of Roland Barthes should have been analyzed and then certain self-portrait in the area of painting and photography should have been gathered and for final analysis, the art of photography should be merely examined among the statistical universe in order to avoid lengthy discussion. The methodology of critical analyze of self-portrait with an approach to the theory of "Death of the Author”; has been accomplished using library and internet resources as well as modeling from self-image photos in form of attributive, descriptive and comparative method. The statistical universe includes two self-portrait which are similarly selected both from painting and photography. The samples of photography were chosen in a way to suffice the verification of its generalization to the art of painting. Conclusion of this research show to us how generalized the theory of "Death of the Author”; Comparative studies have concluded that this theory could not be generalized to all art works, because in the works of self-portrait which embody the picture of the author, the author has become a part of the work and its omission is in fact the omission of a part or the whole work of art. This study showed that the theory of "Death of the Author" is not generalized at least in analyzing self-portrait because the presence of author with different features in the artistic work will leave an image or sign of the author's identity in the work and convey meaning. According to theory of Roland Barthes' "Death of the Author", the author of an artistic work is born as a result of author's death and plays the role of a re-creator of the work and the audience in various periods can reproduce the multiple meaning of the work. From the viewpoint of this research, the meaning regeneration is associated with all components of the artistic work. The result is that if the new criticism is looking for the diversity and multiplicity of artistic works interpretation, then according to the triangle of "artist, art work and audience", the process of meaning regeneration can reach much more multiple meanings with maximum insights. Thus, during meaning reproduction, the author's intention or the status of author's image in the composition of self-portrait can have definitely a similar or complementary role in approaching self-portrait and the omission of author will equal the omission of all or part of the art work, consequently removing part of interpretations. Moreover, the theory of "Death of the Author" cannot omit the author in all works with the same intensity.