One of the major themes in Another Self Portrait is the way in which Bob Dylan (the man) confronts "Bob Dylan" (the publicly defined idea). There is the commonly accepted notion that that the famous are not allowed to be themselves in the public eye; that, as Dylan recited: "Fame is an occupation in itself" (4) where the artist turns his or her name into a brand that can be invested in, managed, sold to the public, etc. What emerges from this situation is the Barthesian 'death of the author,' where the artist is cleaved from the interpretation and effects produced by the artist's creation. We might ponder the relative responsibility J. D. Salinger holds for John Lennon's death.
I'm interested in how you understand this division. Authorship seems an especially marshy terrain in folk music, and 'political folk music' seems the very apogee of this problem. To what extent do you agree or disagree with Barthes' self-admittedly grandiose argument? To what extent do you feel an artist can be seen as responsible for his or her music? How does this change how one listens to music?
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