INTRO:
A. LOVE AND DEATH
We've seen the connection beteen love (eros) and death (thanatos) in a number of documents, including the medieval myth of Tristan and Ysolde, and the movies The English Patient, Jules & Jim, and Love Story.
¥What's "romantic" in this connection between love and death? What's its significance in the Tristan myth according to the 12th-century poet, Thomas?
¥To what extent can we say that The English Patient is a modern reinscription of the medieval myth? Or, is Love Story closer to the Tristan legend?
B. COURTLY ROMANCE ... IS NO ROMANCE
The workings of mimetic desire; the workings of mimetic rivalry; the "beloved" as object of desire; as "prize"; as "love interest"; as pre-text.
I. LOVE STORY AND THE EMERGENCE OF LOVE
At issue: What distinguishes Oliver and Jenny from the lovers of the courtly tradition?
a) Away from the Narcissus paradigm (Oliver and Jenny as distinct entities);
b) Away from the Pygmalion paradigm (Oliver and Jenny as autonomous entities);
c) Being in love, versus falling in love:
--falling in love at-first-sight (Yvain);
--falling in love at-hearsay (Equitan).
II. THE BLOSSOMING OF LOVE
At issue: What is unusual in the affective ties that unite Oliver and Jenny?
a) Away from hierarchical distance (see Equitan: not an emblem of equity but of aggression of horse-culture, "equus");
b) Away from the workings of mimetic desire (see Equitan's desire to possess his seneschal's wife: motivated by the impulses of envy and rivalry);
c) Connection betwen passion, intimacy, and commitment.
III. THE FATE OF LOVE
At issue: which obstacles reaffirm, and which endanger, the protagonists' love story?
Away from the triangle as a structure of rivalry; away from lethal resolutions (from 3 to 2 or 1); love in death (perennity of the loving duo).
IV. LOVE STORY AS CONVENTIONAL ROMANCE
At issue: to what extent is Love Story a "fairy tale"?
The colorization of love; the clichés; ars moriendi (the "art of dying").
TRANSITION towards next week's topic: self-sacrifice and ars vivendi (the "art of living").