Roland Barthes on Love, Language, and the Fragments of a Discourse

In a 1977 interview republished by artpress in 2015, Roland Barthes discusses his book 'Fragments d’un discours amoureux' (Fragments of a Lover's Discourse). He explains that the work originated from a seminar at the École des Hautes Études where he analyzed the discourse of passionate love using Goethe's 'Werther' as a tutor text. Over time, he found himself and his students projecting personal experiences into the analysis, leading him to abandon a scientific treatise in favor of simulating the discourse of a loving subject. The book is composed of alphabetically ordered fragments, deliberately avoiding a linear narrative to reflect the discontinuous, obsessive nature of amorous thought. Barthes describes the lover as a marginal figure, and the book as giving voice to a marginality not fashionable in the 1970s. He acknowledges using psychoanalytic concepts but ultimately distances his work from psychoanalysis, which he sees as normalizing love into coupledom. He emphasizes the ethical dimension of writing, noting that syntax served as a protective device for the vulnerable speaking subject. The interview also touches on his courses at the Collège de France, then focused on 'Vivre ensemble' (Living Together) and the concept of 'idiorythmie' from Eastern monastic traditions.