His lectures draw on a diverse set of authors and intellectual traditions, including Lao-Tzu, Tolstoy, German mysticism, Classical philosophy, Rousseau, Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin, and John Cage. Barthes’s idiosyncratic approach gives the lectures a playful and even joyous quality that enhances his rich insights. In addition to his reflections on a variety of literary and scholarly works, Barthes’s personal convictions and the events of his life profoundly influenced the course and content of the lectures. Most prominently, the recent death of his mother and the idea of mourning shape several of his lectures.