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A Lover's Discourse

Front Cover
23 Reviews
Vintage Classic, 2002 - French language - 234 pages
The language we use when we are in love is not a language we speak, for it is addressed to ourselves and to our imaginary beloved. It is a language of solitude, of mythology, of what Barthes calls an 'image repertoire'. This book revives - beyond the psychological or clinical enterprises which have characterised such researches in our culture - the notion of the amorous subject. It will be enjoyed and understood by two groups of readers: those who have been in love (Or thing they have, which is the same thing), and those who have never been in love (or think they have not, which is the same thing). This book might be considered, in its restless search for authorities and examples, which range from Nietzsche to Zen, from Ruysbroek to Debussy, an encyclopaedia of that affirmative discourse which is the lover's.

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Review: A Lover's Discourse: Fragments

User Review  - Monique - Goodreads

Originally posted here. description Admittedly, this is the kind of book that I will quickly chuck for its verbosity. I've always thought books like this – those that use hemorrhagic and florid words ... Read full review

Review: A Lover's Discourse: Fragments

User Review  - Mark Folse - Goodreads

Roland Barthes is Miller Heavy, everything you don't want in a French intellectual author only more, but I find I can't stop reading A Lover's Discourse. Is it my own nature to be smitten by ... Read full review

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About the author (2002)

Roland Barthes was born in 1915 and studied French literature and classics at the University of Paris. After teaching French at universities in Rumania and Egypt, he joined the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, where he devoted himself to research in sociology and lexicology. He was a professor at the College de France until his death in 1980.

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