Burroughs and Barthes: Reading Queer and A Lover’s Discourse

When his early novel Queer was finally published in 1985, William S. Burroughs insisted that the book was not a love story, but an investigation of the manic, disturbed mindset of the addict after quitting heroin. And while Lee, the central figure in Queer may indeed be disturbed, withdrawal is his only affliction. He is romantically obsessed with another young man in the Mexico City ex-patriot community, displaying many of the figures of love described by Roland Barthes in A Lover's Discourse: Fragments.

An investigation of love in denial, this essay explores Burroughs classic early novel through the lens of Barthes' incredible discussion of love.