Truth and Sinnlichkeit in A Lover's Discourse: Fragments

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to explore the problem of love in the philosophy of Roland Barthes, from the 1977 text, A Lover's Discourse: Fragments, and discuss in it the notions of truth and Sinnlichkeit. It is argued that this philosophy of love concealed in the Fragments, would give the ‘coupe de grace’ to that Eros trapped in the separation between soul and destiny, pathos and reason, typical of the dialectic, but at the same time, it would represent, to some extent, the poiesis of a tragedy, particularly –and this would be the first criterion for analysis- having into account what Lacoue-Labarthe has raised about the tragic in Hölderlin. Conjecturing that the Fragments conceal a possible Sinnlichkeit, especially under the idea of ​​an absent other, emphasis is placed –and this is the second criterion- on the movement of ontological scheme from a Leiblichkeit to a Leibhaftigkeit, as unique residue of this philosophy of Sinnlichkeit.