Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale

Journal | Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale
Journal issue | 59 | 2023
Research Article | Xiaolu Guo’s A Lover’s Discourse: Analysis of the Influence of Roland Barthes

Xiaolu Guo’s A Lover’s Discourse: Analysis of the Influence of Roland Barthes

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse A Lover’s Discourse (2020), a novel by Chinese writer Xiaolu Guo, comparing it to A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments (1978) by Roland Barthe and examining to what degree the French linguist and semiotician has influenced the author’s work. The discourse between lovers developed by Guo resembles that of Barthes on a structural, linguistic, and thematic level, but is set in an intercultural and multilingual context. By reframing the discourse as such, Xiaolu Guo contemplates themes of love, wordlessness, and home, connected to the migrant’s experience.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Jan. 31, 2023 | Accepted: June 21, 2023 | Published Aug. 29, 2023 | Language: en

Keywords Roland BarthesIntercultural communicationFragments d’un discours amoureuxXiaolu GuoChinese literatureA Lover’s Discourse


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