The Making of Romantic Love: Longing and Sexuality in Europe, South Asia, and Japan, 900-1200 CE (Book)
Title: The Making of Romantic Love: Longing and Sexuality in Europe, South Asia, and Japan, 900-1200 CE
Author: William M. Reddy
Abstract: Forthcoming from University of Chicago Press in 2012. Abstract: The conception of romantic love as a form of heroic devotion that stands in sharp contrast to sexual desire is unique to European and Western-influenced contexts. A comparative study of the origins of this conception in the ninth through twelfth centuries shows that nonwestern traditions of that period did not distinguish love from desire, suggesting that, in Europe, medieval courtly love was formulated in part as a reaction to the church’s blanket condemnation of sexual desire as sinful.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://www.duke.edu/~wmr/The%20Making%20of%20Romantic%20Love%20info%20sheet.htm
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Type: Single author monograph

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