StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Barthes and Kipnis about Love - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
"Barthes and Kipnis about Love" paper argues that Kipnis and Barthes provide different visions of love. If one listens to his inner voice and to the beating of his heart he will be able to give the answer to the most crucial question in our lives: what is love, actually?…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER98.8% of users find it useful
Barthes and Kipnis about Love
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Barthes and Kipnis about Love"

Barthes vs Kipnis Introduction Love is…One can define love as he wants. It is very important to realize the essence of love. Very often love is correlated with marriage. Coupledom and marriage of the modern times is considered by Robert Barthes in his book “A Lover’s Discourse”. Marriage and love, social and economic relations of the modern people are considered in the book by Laura Kipnis “Against Love”. Both of these authors have a common idea: they underline that spouses are united by their common beliefs, ideas, daily routine and many other factors, which determine their common life. There are different strategies of marriage interpretation in the books of these two authors. Currently, the issues of love discourse have not been properly covered in the sudies of modern scholars. Barthes marked his narration by a vivid tone, lyrical descriptions, and emotional appeal for reader’s feelings. Consequently, his main concepts presented throughout his book, are more emotional than dewless considerations of Kipnis. Barthes and Kipnis about love A lover’s Discourse by Roland Barthes is focused on different aspects of communication between two beloved people. He discusses different lingual peculiarities of communication between two beloved individuals. For example, he says: “As a jealous man, I suffer four times over: because I am jealous, because I blame myself for being so, because I fear that my jealousy will wound the other, because I allow myself to be subject to a banality: I suffer from being excluded, from being aggressive, from being crazy, and from being common” (Barthes). To be the one who waits, or to be in love means a lot for people. During all our lives we are striving for a feeling of love and it is very difficult for us to realize that our beloved persons do not understand us etc. These things are challenging and we come across these difficulties every day, but we do not pay a proper attention to these considerations. There are many mishaps between beloved ones, but their commonality and ability to find a common decision cannot be underestimated for sure. Barthes devoted himself to explorations in the fields of sociology and lexicology. This unique writing opens our eyes on peculiarities and specific features of our daily communication with our beloved people. The basic feature of a beloved person, as it is outlined by Barthes, is ability and a strong desire to wait: “Am I in love? --yes, since I am waiting. … Whatever I do, I find myself there, with nothing to do, punctual, even ahead of time. The lover's fatal identity is precisely this: I am the one who waits” (Barthes). At this point it is very easy to restore in our memories the way we want to suffer and to wait for our beloved; to live their lives etc. Barthes is marked by his romantic considerations and his lyrical narration.   When we read the book by Barthes, we are enchanted by gentle and sympathetic expressions. A soft tone of his book entertains the readers and they are impressed by a direct nature of the writer’s narration. Though relationship between two beloved people is often imperfect, they are attracted to each other and it is very important for them to find a mutual understanding. Barthes often talks about irrationality of lover’s behavior. Constant controversies and arguing between two beloved persons cannot be denied. He claims: "I encounter millions of bodies in my life; of these millions, I may desire some hundreds; but of these hundreds, I love only one. The other with whom I am in love designates for me the specialty of my desire” (Barthes, p. 19). Love objects may suffer from inconsistencies with their partners or beloved people. They find it very difficult to find a common understanding. The author does not implement social, economic or any other external factors. Beloved persons are focused on their own feelings, as Barthes claims. Unlike Barthes, Kipnis’s book “Against Love” is written from a different perspective. The author talks about contradictions between two beloved persons, who cannot find anything in common and the universal concept about love is often compared with an ordinary work and a daily routine. Wives and husbands in the modern marriages are “choke-chained to the status-quo machinery” (Kipnis, p. 19). Kipnis claims that there is a subconscious desire of individuals to be guilty and we are “social creatures to a fault” (Kipnis, p. 24), and she says that love refers to a social construction, which is focused on “cultural uniformity” (Kipnis, p. 25). Adultery for Kipnis is a convenient way of searching for one’s half. When people match, they are free of “insomnia, migraines, cold sore, digestive ailments, heart palpitations, and sexual difficulty” (Kipnis, p. 48). Therefore, physical peculiarities of our bodies cannot be considered separately from emotional or mental affection. The second chapter of the book “Domestic Gulags” impresses the readers by its negative criticism of people’s interpretation of traditional love stories. The spouses make their lives complicated, because they follow invented patterns of behavior and it is very difficult for them to follow their mutual love and understanding and not to follow their social duties. What happens after marriage? No one knows the exact answer. People are enchanted by uncertainty; they are striving for finding a common sense in their common life. There are more practical considerations in the book by Kipnis, because she is focused on daily lives of the modern couples. Social bounds are stronger than bounds of affection or love. People live together, if they can coexist together happily. The concept of marriage exceeds the limits of a traditional understanding of marriage. A century ago this concept concerned two beloved individuals, who love each other and want to be together. In the political context of the modern world, economic situations and social roles of the contemporaries exert a serious influence on married couples (Kipnis, 2006). Kipnis claims that marriage is the “basic repression is necessary for any civilization to survive” (Kipnis, p. 29). Being equally in their financial conditions, both men and women want to have a different type of relations. Marriage is currently implemented to "maximize submission and minimize freedom" (Kipnis 2006, p. 53). Love for Kipnis “is the nearest most of us come to glimpsing utopia in our lifetimes” (Kipnis, 2006). In the modern world marriage unites spouses. The modern people want to be closer to each other, but very often they do not want to sacrifice their freedom and independence in the name of happiness of their marriages or families. Conclusion Both authors refer their ideas to teachings of Freud. Barthes claims: everything starts with a question: “Why don't you love me?" which soon becomes "Why do you love me only a little?" It is evident that it is impossible to answer to this question. Every individual always believes that he is loved, but very often he can hallucinate that he is loved. Our conscious gives answers to the basic questions. Kipnis and Barthes provide different visions about love. If one listens to his inner voice and to the beating of his heart he will be able to give the answer to the most crucial question in our lives: what is love, actually… Works cited Barhtes, R. A Lover’s Discourse. Kipnis, Laura. "Something's Missing." Women's Studies Quarterly 34.3/4 (2006): 22+.Questia. Web. 12 Sept. 2012. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Barthes vs Kipnis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words”, n.d.)
Barthes vs Kipnis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/english/1456951-analyze-the-differences-and-similarities-between-a
(Barthes Vs Kipnis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words)
Barthes Vs Kipnis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words. https://studentshare.org/english/1456951-analyze-the-differences-and-similarities-between-a.
“Barthes Vs Kipnis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/english/1456951-analyze-the-differences-and-similarities-between-a.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Barthes and Kipnis about Love

The Songs from Beuern by Carmina Burana

The category of the song is one which belongs as a love song, specifically because of the sentiment which is offered.... When reading this poem, it can be seen that the values were based on sentiments of love.... Other concepts of Romanticism in the literature could also be seen, specifically with this love song being one of the attributes that showed the intensity of emotions that were present during this time.... There is also a reflection from society about the good and bad deeds which an individual has committed while living in that lifetime....
10 Pages (2500 words) Term Paper

Summary of the Books of the Old Testament Books

David's life story is told, and his love of God and desire to build the temple show that he was a good king.... It contains a lot of dire warnings about the anger of God, and the way that people will be punished if they ignore his instructions or persecute his people.... Jeremiah warns about defeat in battles and the bad example of kings.... There are rules about proper sacrifices, and warnings about idolatry, for example....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Analysis of The Odyssey by Homer

The story is about his journey to his home place, which is after the fall of Troy (Homer, 14).... From the paper "Analysis of The Odyssey by Homer" it is clear that Homer wants his writers to get the message from the poem by looking at the major themes.... The theme pertaining to gender is a theme that the writer has placed emphasis on, and through it, many conclusions have been drawn....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Music Market Peculiarities

The paper "Music Market Peculiarities" tells that the digital music market's growing strength is beginning to develop in the Australian and global music markets.... The repercussions it may have on traditional music delivery sales are a worldwide concern affecting the music industry as a whole.... ...
9 Pages (2250 words) Essay

Tim O'Brien Book Northern ights

The ultimate result, O'Brien's own self-examination about his own terrors, pushed O'Brien into writing.... While Vietnam is a common setting in O'Brien's novels, he does not see that his novels are, essentially about Vietnam: he says that he has 'used [Vietnam] in the way Conrad writes about the sea, life on the water.... b]ut Conrad is no more writing about the sea than [O'Brien is] writing about war' (Bourne and Shostak)....
6 Pages (1500 words) Literature review

MODERN FRENCH THINKERS-POLITICAL SCIENCE PHILOSOPHY

Montesquieu argue that this maybe achieved in De L'esprit des Lois.... By what means does Montesquieu suggest a moderate may be ensured l'esprit des.... ... ... e epigraph for the Spirit of the Law is taken from the Metamorphoses of the ancient Roman poet Ovid: “An offspring created without a mother” (2....
36 Pages (9000 words) Essay

The Theories of Culture - PETA

Although we exhibit our own culture every day through our actions and thinking, it is hard to talk about or explain it because it already seems second-nature to us.... These traditions and beliefs all seem very natural to an average American that most go about them without question or resistance....
9 Pages (2250 words) Essay

Understanding the Aesthetic Strategies of TV Programs

In his work, Barthes sets out some of his ideas about literary theory.... The 'power of definition' refers to the pleasure of discourse, a pleasure of positioning one's self about the devices of social control.... The essay "Understanding the Aesthetic Strategies of TV Programs" focuses on the critical analysis of the major issues concerning the understanding of the aesthetic strategies of TV programs....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us