Love Encounter Research Articles

The Italian Love Poetry of Ludovico Ariosto: Court Culture and Classicism by Giada Guassardo

Reviewed by: The Italian Love Poetry of Ludovico Ariosto: Court Culture and Classicism by Giada Guassardo Jane E. Everson The Italian Love Poetry of Ludovico Ariosto: Court Culture and Classicism. By Giada Guassardo. (Biblioteca dell' 'Archivium Romanicum', ser. 1: Storia, Letteratura, Paleografia, 508) Florence: Olschki. 2021. viii+244 pp. €26. ISBN 978–8822–26731–3. This volume, which principally publishes the findings of the author's Oxford D.Phil. thesis, presents an impressively wide-ranging discussion. The title is apt, since although the core of each section of the monograph is constituted by Ariosto's vernacular lyric corpus, the emphasis throughout is on the setting of individual lyrics in a series of relevant contexts: literary—Italian vernacular poetry, especially Petrarch and the subsequent fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century developments; Latin lyric poetry, in particular of the Augustan period; the social and cultural milieux experienced by Ariosto; and the immediately contemporary and biographical factors, especially those related to the Ferrarese court. Thus alongside Ariosto's lyrics the volume quotes liberally from the lyrics of Bembo, Boiardo, Tebaldeo, Serafino Aquilano among contemporary poets, and from Ovid, Propertius, and Catullus for the Latin tradition. The volume is divided into three main sections, each of which is subdivided into a number of subsections which address discrete parts of the argument. A substantial Introduction (pp. 3–30) summarizes the complex situation regarding Ariosto's lyrics and the two main groups into which these fall: the 'canzoniere' for [End Page 261] poems selected by Ariosto with a view to constituting a coherent collection; and the 'rime extravaganti', for those not selected for this collection; the general features of the lyric corpus; and the range of influences to be examined in detail in the volume. The first chapter is then dedicated to Ariosto's Elegiac Self-Fashioning' (pp. 31–83). This is centred on an analysis of four of the capitoli from the 'canzoniere' for which the influence of classical Latin elegy is considered of particular note, while the element of self-fashioning is consistently set alongside the Satire for purposes of comparison and contrast. The subsections discuss 'the tradition of the parting between two lovers', 'love and warfare', 'a poem addressed to Ippolito', 'a mission to Florence', 'the journey to the Garfagnana', and the 'portrait of the lyric speaker as a lover'—and these subheadings aptly underline the historical, political, and biographical dimensions of the lyric poems, while the discussion brings out Ariosto's use of both classical and humanist Latin verse. The second chapter, entitled 'Ariosto, the Lyric Lover' (pp. 85–162), aims to analyse the complex and often ambivalent type, or better types, of lover relationship envisaged by the poet. The discussion here is at times quite dense, partly on account of the number of different approaches and influences considered, and the complex tradition and uncertain chronology of Ariosto's lyrics. The chapter considers 'Love encounters' discussed with reference to both Petrarchan and classical Latin parallels; 'fides and constancy', which engages appropriately with similar arguments in the Orlando furioso; 'the courtly–Petrarchan celebration of women' and 'the flight of the poet: cases of metapoetry'—two sections which deal especially with the relevance of the myths of Icarus and Phaethon for the Ferrarese court and its poets; 'between realism and myth'; and lastly a study of the final poem of the 'canzoniere'. There is undoubtedly a wealth of interesting and thought-provoking information in the sections of this chapter, but at times the desire to include numerous possible parallels and influences detracts from the focus on Ariosto's lyrics, and the force of the argument is lost. Chapter 3, devoted to 'The Portrayal of Women' (pp. 163–215), illustrates what for this reviewer is the chief weakness of the approach used, namely the almost inevitable overlap of material and argument between the three chapters. Chapter 2 already treated aspects of the portrayal of women in discussing the relationship issues, while here the lover and his views arising from his relationships recur. Poems already discussed in previous chapters are treated again, from slightly different perspectives, but it becomes nonetheless difficult to see the wood for the trees—as other texts, by Ariosto and others...

La joueuse de go (2001) By Shan Sa: A Battle of Eroticism and Abstinence

Set in the Second Sino-Japanese War, Shan Sa's award-winning novel La joueuse de go features the cross-cultural love between her protagonists-narrators: a Chinese teenage girl and a Japanese soldier. Since its publication in 2001, the novel has received divergent remarks from literary critics, especially for its contentious portrayals of sexuality. Viewing Shan's representation of sexuality as a battle of eroticism and abstinence, this essay focuses on how the protagonists' respective sexual explorations reflect and influence their identity-quests and their reciprocal yet untold love. In the book, abstinence, a defining feature of their cross-cultural love, is depicted as eroticism in disguise. While the Chinese girl's sexual awakening empowers her to embrace her womanhood, the Japanese soldier's love encounters enable him to live for and as himself. Throughout the narrative, Shan creates various forms of duality, whether it be structuring the text as a game of Go or presenting the characters as doubles. As the most crucial metaphor of duality, Go serves as a site of reflection and introspection. Through their interactions on the grid, the protagonists complete the liberating process of self-rediscovery by letting the strangers within themselves emerge. Drawing on critical theories of écriture féminine and platonic love, as well as celebrated creative works, such as Alain Resnais' film Hiroshima, mon amour (1959), my analysis seeks to shed new light on the central issues of sexuality, identity, and cross-cultural love in Shan's sentimental tale.

Schizophrénie et rétablissement : analyse phénoménologique d’un cas de retrait positif

ObjectivesThe recovery paradigm has emerged in mental health over the last thirty years, referring to the subjective and dynamic process by which a person achieves a satisfying life, relying on his/her strengths, his/her values, and the very experience of his/her psychiatric illness. The understanding of the experience of people living with schizophrenia and engaged in a path of recovery is undermined by an objective and categorical psychiatric approach, targeting symptoms and deficits to be compensated. We propose a phenomenological approach to a clinical situation of positive withdrawal, as developed by Corin and Lauzon, as a form of recovery for the schizophrenic subject, in order to shed light on the first-person experience of what psychiatric semiology refers to as negative symptoms, apragmatism and social withdrawal. MethodWe develop the single case of Sam, 39 years old man who has been treated for schizophrenia for about 10 years. He talks about his “spiritual schizophrenia”, which has in the past generated a demon above his head guiding his aggressive behaviors. Since he was discharged from hospital three years ago, Sam has become an “ordinary person” again, according to him. His daily routine is ritualized by a weekly activity at the day hospital, daily nursing visits at home, television, and visits from two friends on weekends. He explains that he needs peace and quiet around him and like to be aware of his neighbourhood and village lives and events. He listens to his spiritual guides and his gift of clairvoyance, which predicted him, more happiness from his forties onwards by getting a job and by a love encounter. We propose a phenomenological analysis of his experience of recovery and positive withdrawal. ResultsSam's embodied experience was previously characterized by a confusion between the intentional and sensitive flesh (Leib) and the objectified body (Körper), disembodied and materialized as if on the outside by a demon on top of his head. Today, it seems to be re-articulated in a dialectic harmony between Leib and Körper. Sam inhabits his body in an embodied life, as an interface between himself, his history and the world. His relationship to space is characterized by the paradox of an opening to the shared world by keeping a distance from others. Sam gets punctually and cyclically involved in selected spaces that do not require any intimate social commitment, and stays on the lookout, from his home, for events in his neighborhood, his village, and world news. The Others participate in his distant integration into the community: his link with the mayor of the village validates his identity as a fully-fledged citizen, his family regularly invoked in his self-narrative is kept at a distance by monthly digital contacts, the neighbor's daily life must not be disturbed under penalty of divine punishment, etc. Sam claims a necessity of calm both inside and outside, as a support for a controlled intersubjectivity allowing the reconstruction of the self. Finally, the patient's temporality is structured by patience. À slow-now allows him to synchronize private and public paces. His esoteric beliefs give meaning to the cyclical repetition of events; his spiritual guides direct his life trajectory, promising him professional and relational dynamism from the age of forty. ConclusionÀ phenomenological approach as close as possible to the subjective experience of the person living with schizophrenia has made it possible to break loose from the social withdrawal symptom pointed out by psychiatric semiology. Positive withdrawal, as an active positioning of the subject both inside and outside the society, illustrates a process of recovery from the illness. By supporting an identity reconstruction through a dialectical tension between proximity and distance with the Other and the world, positive withdrawal reveals the importance of considering the paradoxical shape of recovery processes. It invites clinicians to free oneself from normative interventions motivated by a restrictive psychiatric empiricism.

The tradition of the procuress in Memories of my sad whores

The purpose of this essay is to trace the way in which the character of Spanish brothel life is treated during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. This character defines his love affairs, seduces and attracts the young women to have love encounters with their suitors through deceits and love potions. García Márquez adopts these literary traditions in the early 20th century in Barranquilla and enriches them with characters such as the procuress and maid Delgadina.

“Kiss me with the hollow of your mouth” – imagining falling in love with Stense Andrea Lind-Valdan

ABSTRACTThe essay reflects upon the function of images within the love encounter, drawing on the personal experience of the author and his partner, visual artist Stense Andrea Lind-Valdan. Mixing personal experiences, diaristic notes and academic reflections, the essay moves beyond conventional scholarly style and experiments with more personal and anecdotal modalities, thus creating a text that re-enacts the fascination and imaginary entrapments involved in the love encounter while simultaneously reflecting upon these aspects of love.

Modernity in a Wartime Tramcar: Temporal Contestations and Individual Subjectivity in Eileen Chang's "Sealed Off"

Modernity in a Wartime TramcarTemporal Contestations and Individual Subjectivity in Eileen Chang's "Sealed Off" Leihua Weng Dan: Time. We can't see it, we can't hear it, we can't weigh it, we can't measure it in a laboratory. It's a subjective sense of becoming what we are instead of what we were a nanosecond ago, becoming what we will be in another nanosecond. The Hopis see time as a landscape, existing before and behind us, and we move—We move through it, slice by slice. Linda: Clocks measure time. Dan: No, they measure themselves. The objective referent of a clock is another clock. The Man from Earth 2007) As modern human beings, we at least share one thing in common–we all measure and assess our physical existence in terms of time: we look forward to the future; we reflect upon the past; we synthesize our feelings of the future and of the past at the present. However, the specifics of our experiences of time radically differ, as our temporality is largely defined culturally and socially. Aristotle identifies time with motion, but Augustine associates time with the present and the eternal. Hegel introduces personality into time with his concept of the Subject of History and sets our modern temporality as linear and teleological, and he conceives of a collective unbending spirit moving toward the ultimate end, i.e., the End of History. Various important notional entities in our modern time, such as the nation-state, find their temporal basis in the Hegelian concept of time. However, even when one particular mode of time has achieved its hegemony, there still exist alternative temporalities. Though dispersed and repressed, those alternative concepts of time keep challenging, destabilizing, and contesting the dominant status of the Hegelian notion of time. Tensions and contestations between alternative modes of time and the dominant temporality can manifest themselves in cultural and ideological realms, and they can impact our psychological state, especially at times of social, cultural, and political upheaval and transformation. [End Page 286] Focusing on the literary text of Eileen Chang's short story "Sealed Off," this paper discusses two modes of temporality: one is an alterity to the dominant historical, linear, and progressive time, the other an alternative sensibility to the urbanized journalistic time of the present. The first half of the twentieth century was a period marked with social and political changes that shaped the intellectual landscape of modern China and also wrote the psychological state and mentality of several generations in the twentieth century. Different from other female writers of her time who participated in rigorous conversations or actively engaged in political movements, Eileen Chang was one of the few writers who stayed quiet and persisted in exploring what was mundane and daily. In most of her writings, Eileen Chang displays a conscious detachment from the political; however, as argued in this paper, her short story "Sealed Off" could be read as a subtle rejection of the dominant temporality and sensibility of her time as well as a reflection and critique of modernity. Published in 1944, "Sealed Off" tells of a brief love encounter during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in WWII. This love episode takes place between the accountant Lu Zongzhen and the college instructor Wu Cuiyuan. It starts when the tramcar pauses because of a blockage alarm, and it comes to its quick end when the alarm is lifted and the tramcar starts moving again on its unaltered track. By the end of the story, the protagonist Cuiyuan trembles with shock, realizing "everything that had happened while the city was sealed off was a nonoccurrence. The whole city of Shanghai had dozed off and dreamed an unreasonable dream" (Chang 251). It has been noted by scholars that Eileen Chang's writing presents a unique mode of sensitivity and modernity. Contextualizing "Sealed Off" in theories of temporality and urbanized modernity, this paper explores the narrative features of this short story and speculates that it embodies temporal contestations of two kinds: one is between the concepts of Hegelian historical time and individual "lived" moments; the other one is based upon the distinctions between journalistic fragmented information and profound...

“Bis auf den Punkt der Liebe”: The Phantasmagorical Image of the Small in Anton Reiser

This essay proposes a reading of Karl Philipp Moritz's Anton Reiser, focusing on the two component elements of its fundamental “Symbolik” (this is the standard translation of Goethe's “das Symbolische” as used by Walter Benjamin when discussing works of art): material content and truth content. The first is approached via commentary, the second through an interrogation of the novel's central enigma. Regarding material content, the essay discusses three quotations from Moritz selected by Benjamin in one of his radio ‘Hörmodelle’. I argue that these instantiate the novel's ‘Symbolik’, and I call this the ‘phantasmagorical image of the small’. It manifests itself in the recurring motif of adventure and wandering, in the way the novel depicts the role of the imagination, and in the form in which it addresses the question of Reiser's destiny. Regarding truth content, I concentrate first on a small but crucial detail. Reiser identifies with Werther in all ways except one, radically excluding the possibility of a love encounter. Anton Reiser’s enigma of the small is condensed in a phantasmagoria without any love-object. Second, I delineate the novel's denouement in order to show that Anton Reiser offers, avant la lettre, a perspective on modernity alternative to that of the classic Bildungsroman.

Parole fragili, parole silenziose. Tre incontri ovidiani

Study of three love encounters in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, in the light of the categories of «visual» and «sound». From the full of the structured sound of Orpheus, to the silence of Pygmalion’s statue/mate, to the prelinguistic sound of Echo: sometimes happily, sometimes fallaciously.

"Bem longe de Marienbad": uma leitura da ausência em conto de Caio Fernando Abreu

Caio Fernando Abreu's short story “Bem longe de Marienbad” addresses the impossibility of the love encounter, determined by the mismatch between two lovers whose contact is almost exclusively intellectual and minimally embodied. This article aims to analyze how the subject-inherent discontinuity, which Bataille thematizes in Eroticism, is underscored in the narrative. As a consequence of the erotic desire, the main character becomes aware of his incompleteness and solitude when he realizes that it is impossible to get close to the desired one.

Canções populares e repertório cinematográfico em The hole, de Tsai Ming-liang // POPULAR SONGS AND CINEMATIC REPERTOIREIN TSAI MING- LIANG’S THE HOLE

In this article we seek to analyze Tsai Ming-liang's feature film The hole (1998), in order to discuss how its five musical moments are set as a response to the delay of the love encounter on the diegetic level. We also seek to highlight the ways by which popular songs and cinematic references are appropriated as means to enhance an affective investment in the repertoires of media culture. The assimilation of such repertoires relies on aesthetic operations of detour and displacement. We argue that instead of erasing the differences, those operations invest in the expressive potential of the disjunctions between disparate visual regimes.

Of Bastard Man and Evil Woman, or, the Horror of Sex

Lars von Trier’s Antichrist (2009) has often been described as a ‘gothic’, if not straightforwardly ‘horror’ movie. While this claim could easily be challenged with regard to strict genre definitions, it is doubtless the case that the film deals very explicitly with fear, first and foremost the female protagonist’s fear of herself, which is placed at the top of the so-called ‘pyramid of fear’ drawn by her therapist/wanna-be-Saviour partner. My opinion is that Antichrist perfectly displays the horrific effects of the direct embodiment, following a true love encounter, of the symbolic positions which Lacan associated with male and female sexuation. If human sexuality relies on the logic for which there is only one mythical man who is truly whole while every real woman is not wholly whole, what happens when He and She (the nameless protagonists of the movie) fully identify with such irreducible asymmetry between the sexes, its fundamental derailment from nature? They short-circuit the material singularity of a specific human animal with the abstract universality of gender. With the same move, they cannot overcome (or sublimate) the realisation that, in the female protagonist’s own words, woman is ‘evil’ – as long as she feels guilty of what man accuses her – and man is a ‘bastard’ – haunted by the phantasm of unifying purity which woman disrupts. Gynocide as male totalizing extermination of universal difference and genital self-mutilation as female reflexive hatred for the supposedly exceptional man mark the sadomasochistic extremes of the scene of the not-two, the frightening ob-scenity ( o-skene ), or off-representation, of human sexuality.

Marital Ideoscapes in 21st-Century India: Creative Combinations of Love and Responsibility

Although arranged marriage has survived in India, the custom is increasingly challenged by the current influx of new commodities, media, and ideas. Interviews with 15 male and 15 female unmarried professionals, age 22 to 29, in Vadodara, Gujarat, showed that educated youth have moved beyond the conventional love-versus-arranged marriage dichotomy. They instead focus on achieving specific goals: intimacy, equality, and personal choice, along with supernatural support, growing into love, and brides joining husbands’ families. To achieve these aims, they use both systems: separately, simultaneously, and in creative combinations. The theories of Arjun Appadurai explain that as the Western-inspired ideoscape of romantic love encounters Indian family values, Indian upper-middle-class youth respond by generating hybrid goals and systems of mate selection. They have linked imagination to hope and are using voice within their families to win the recognition, and often the partners, they seek.

The Birth of Psychoanalysis: From Incestuous Couples to Transference Love

Through an analytic reading of the 2 films by Elizabeth Màrton and Roberto Faenza, we revisit the relationship between Sabina Spielrein and Carl Gustav Jung, focusing their attention on the contribution it gave to the development of the concept of transference and countertransference. Elisabeth Màrton's film is more linked to the historical documentary, and Faenza inserts historical documentary in a fictional frame, bringing the spectator towards the affective, passionate level of this analytic relationship of the beginning. In the history of psychoanalysis, the therapeutic and love encounter of Spielrein and Jung represents the first attempt to testify the sufferings and errors, suffered by the 2 protagonists; they supplied the basic elements for the reflection and research of contemporary psychoanalysis on the theme of transference/countertransference.