Nicht mehr. Mehr nicht. Chiffren für sie. Il "discorso amoroso" dell'assenza in Botho Strauß - guardando Roland Barthes, Emmanuel Lévinas e Byung-chul Han

This essay investigates the theme of absence in Botho Strauß’s work Nicht mehr. Mehr nicht. Chiffren für sie, placing it within the broader philosophical and literary debates on love, language, and subjectivity. Through a dialogue with Roland Barthes, Emmanuel Lévinas, and Byung-Chul Han, the study highlights how Strauß transforms the discourse of abandonment into a space of ontological and poetic significance. By focusing on the “speech of absence”, the essay demonstrates how the void left by the beloved becomes not mere loss but a privileged site of transcendence, memory, and epiphany. The analysis underlines Strauß’s reworking of myth – particularly through the figure of Didone/Elissa – as a means to articulate the dialectics of presence and absence, memory and expectation. It also argues that the act of writing itself embodies the paradoxical survival of love, creating an autonomous discourse that reconfigures the self. Ultimately, the essay shows that Strauß’s exploration of absence resists the commodification of modern relationships and reclaims the poetic as the last refuge for authentic eros, positioning his work within a tradition that intertwines literature, philosophy, and existential reflection. Keywords: Absence – Love – Language – Memory – Alterity