A College Student’s Approach to Courtly Love Essay -- Relationships Li

A College Student’s Approach to Courtly Love The term "courtly love" is a highly ambiguous one. As it applies to works of literature, it spans over hundreds of years and over a half dozen countries. Hence finding its specific literary and allegorical definition and impact on literature is difficult. It is important to understand the roots of courtly love. To do so means that one gains a greater understanding of the most foundational element of any society- the relationship between men and women. If a student of literature holds only a vague understanding of courtly love, then he or she holds only a vague understanding of medieval culture. In turn when this student moves on to various other periods of British literature, they will have a nearly impossible time determining in what ways the dynamics of romantic relationships and marriage have changed. In this paper I will work to find a concise yet comprehensive definition for courtly love that may be useful to students of literature. Additionally I will explore the impact of courtly love on the literature in which it makes appearances. Finally I will examine the contemporary understanding of this term and how it is relevant to contemporary times. Gaston Paris first coined the term "amour courteious" in 1883. In this, it is clear that the French have had a tremendous impact on the spread of this phenomenon in literature (as with the French troubadours). Courtly love certainly functions on two levels. We must distinguish these two uses of the word- to describe experience and to denote a genre. In the first it is a set of codes that regulates the interaction between two lovers. There are set rules that were often unspoken at the time. In this sense it is not so much a term ... ...e if we have no starting point? Women searching for liberation from social customs and restrictions cannot find it without empathizing with those who came before them. Inner conflicts between human nature and social well being that men experience must be dealt with in some way. If he knows the attempts proposed before him, he can save time and effort in reserving from investing in these. For any reader of any time period of the courtly love tradition, these questions and should remain in mind. The answers may give us a new direction to move in as we reread the classics and write our own. Works Cited Ford, Boris. Medieval Literature. Part Two: The Eurpean Inheritance. New York, 1983. O’Donogue, Bernard. The Courtly Love Tradition. New Jersey, 1982. Stevens, J.E. Medieval Romance. London, 1973. Zumthor, Paul. Speaking of the Middle Ages. Lincoln, 1986.