It's interesting that this book chooses to focus on the singular viewer rather than the audience as a whole--this is unusual for a textbook, but I can see why this book does it.
The book does go over some things that I'm already familiar with (again)--that is, Barthes's concept of the "Death of the Author." I'm not, however, familiar with Foucault's response--and I'm not sure I agree with him. While the concept of author may not have always existed, it has become an integral part of culture, and I see no sign of it "passing out of relevance"--we as a society have become so concerned with ownership that I cannot see us giving that up any time soon. While, yes, we may continue to disregard the author's intent behind their work, we still nonetheless attribute the author's work to the author.
Clifford's Art-Culture System diagram was also rather intriguing, though a bit difficult to decipher at first. After a while of studying, however, it starts to make a certain amount of sense--some of the "opposites" presented seem a bit off. This could be simply for this particular diagram, but it seems to me that "masterpiece" and "artifact" aren't necessarily "opposites" or even mutually exclusive. I also disagree with his assertion that anything "new" is "not-culture"--perhaps a better divide would be "traditional culture vs. pop culture".
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