Discourse Quote by Roland Barthes
““Endlessly I sustain the discourse of the beloved's absence; actually a preposterous situation; the other is absent as referent, present as allocutory. The singular distortion generates a kind of insupportable present; I am wedged between two tenses, that of the reference and that of the allocution: you have gone (which I lament), you are here (since I am addressing you). Whereupon I know what the present, that difficult tense is: a pure portion of anxiety.””
About This Quote
Source Essay: “The Death of the Author” (excerpt), 1977
The speaker experiences a split between past absence and present address, creating anxiety about the unstable nature of meaning.
In simple terms: I feel torn between missing and present, causing anxiety.
Key Takeaway
Embrace ambiguity and explore multiple perspectives.
Themes
language
presence
absence
anxiety
temporal tension
Mood
introspective
analytical
Type
philosophical
literary
When to use this quote
- literary criticism
- personal reflection
- philosophical debate
Key Concepts
post‑structuralism
deconstruction
psychoanalysis
Questions to Reflect On
- What does the “present” mean for you?
- How can you hold contradictory meanings?
A Different Perspective
Anxiety may hinder productive interpretation.
![“That is another theme in the book [Dreams from My Father]. How do we exercise more empathy in our public discourse? How do we get the black to see through the eyes of the white? Or the citizen to see through the eyes of the immigrant? Or the straight to see through the eyes of the gay? That has…” quote by Barack Obama](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/00d/barack-obama-17_black_that-is-another-theme-in-the-book-dreams_10185.jpg)
![“Sweet discourse makes short daies and nights. [Sweet discourse makes short days and nights.]” quote by George Herbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/b33/george-herbert-107_day-and-night_sweet-discourse-makes-short-daies-and-ni_63778.jpg)