La declaracion: el instante imposible

In: Revista mexicana de ciencias políticas y sociales, Band 36, Heft 143, S. 25-32

Abstract

The declaration of love (ie, "I love you") comprises amorous speech in its canonical form, & is symmetrically opposed to discourse on leave-taking or farewell. As a text, "I love you" includes much more than the actual words. The declaration of love, in its first utterance, is irreducible to any other gesture of love that follows because it is the mother of all those other gestures, an opening. It confers "we-ness" on the "I" & "you," & is understood to be unbounded by time & space. These concepts are illustrated by reference to Roland Barthes's Fragmentos de un discurso amoroso ([Fragments of an Amorous Discourse] 1982). 1 Reference. M. Pflum