"Barthes's most popular and unusual performance as a writer isA Lover's Discourse,a writing out of the discourse of love. This languageprimarily the complaints and reflections of the lover when alone, not exchanges of a lover with his or her partneris unfashionable. Thought it is spoken by millions of people, diffused in our popular romances and television programs as well as in serious literature, there is no institution that explores, maintains, modifies, judges, repeats, and otherwise assumes responsibility for this discourse . . . Writing out the figures of a neglected discourse, Barthes surprises us inA Lover's Discourseby making love, in its most absurd and sentimental forms, an object of interest."Jonathan Culler Roland Bartheswas born in 1915 and studied French literature and the classics at the University of Paris. After teaching French at universities in Romania 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. "Barthes's most popular and unusual performance as a writer isA Lover's Discourse,a writing out of the discourse of love. This languageprimarily the complaints and reflections of the lover when alone, not exchanges of a lover with his or her partneris unfashionable. Thought it is spoken by millions of people, diffused in our popular romances and television programs as well as in serious literature, there is no institution that explores, maintains, modifies, judges, repeats, and otherwise assumes responsibility for this discourse . . . Writing out the figures of a neglected discourse, Barthes surprises us inA Lover's Discourseby making love, in its most absurd and sentimental forms, an object of interest."Jonathan Culler