The Philosophy Book

291

The lover’s language is like a skin,

says Barthes, which inhabits the lover.

Its words are able to move the

beloved—and only the beloved—in

an almost physical or tactile way.

See also: Plato 50–55 ■ St Augustine of Hippo 72–73 ■ Ferdinand de Saussure 223 ■ Walter Benjamin 258 ■
Jacques Derrida 308–13 ■ Julia Kristeva 323

CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY

affectionately described as having
“lost the plot.” So instead of using
a plot, or narrative, Barthes arranges
his book like an extraordinary
encyclopaedia of contradictory and
disordered outbursts, any of which
might serve as the point the reader
might suddenly exclaim, “That’s so
true! I recognize that scene...”

The language of love
It is in this context that Barthes
suggests “language is a skin.”
Language, at least the language
of the lover, is not something that

simply talks about the world in a

neutral fashion, but it is something

that, as Barthes says, “trembles

with desire.” Barthes writes of how

“I rub my language against the

other. It is as if I had words instead

of fingers, or fingers at the tip of my

words.” Even if I write cool, detached

philosophy about love, Barthes

claims, there is buried in my

philosophical coolness a secret

address to a particular person, an

object of my desire, even if this

somebody is “a phantom or a

creature still to come.”

Barthes gives an example of this

secret address (although not, it

should be said, in the context of a

particularly detached philosophical

discussion) from Plato’s dialogue,

The Symposium. This is an account

of a discussion on the subject of

love that takes place in the house

of the poet Agathon. A statesman

called Alcibiades turns up to the

discussion both late and drunk, and

sits down on a couch with Agathon

and the philosopher Socrates. The

drunken speech he gives is full

of praise for Socrates, but it is

Every lover

is mad.

Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes Barthes was born in Cherbourg,

France, in 1915. He attended the

University of Sorbonne in Paris

from 1935, graduating in 1939,

but by this time he had already

contracted the tuberculosis that

would afflict him for the

remainder of his life. His illness

made it difficult to acquire

teaching qualifications, but it

exempted him from military

service during World War II. After

the war, having finally qualified

as a teacher, he taught in France,

Romania, and Egypt. He returned

to live in France full time in 1952,

and there started to write the

pieces that were collected

together and published under

the title Mythologies in 1957.

Barthes’ reputation grew

steadily through the 1960s, in

France and internationally, and

he taught both at home and

abroad. He died at the age of 64,

when he was run over by

a laundry van after lunching

with President Mitterrand.

Key works

1957 Mythologies

1973 The Pleasure of the Text

1977 A Lover’s Discourse

Agathon that Alcibiades desires; it

is against Agathon, so to speak, that

Alcibiades’ language is rubbing.

But what of the language that

we use when talking of other

things? Is only the lover’s language

a skin that trembles with hidden

desire, or is this also true of other

types of language? Barthes does

not tell us, leaving us to consider

the idea for ourselves. ■