Capellanus, A. (1990). The Art of Courtly Love. (J. J. Parry, Trans.). Columbia University.
One person might express love differently from another, and this idea is supported by Capellanus’s saying, “There are doubtless many other things which may be useful in retaining love” (Capellanus, 1990). The meaning behind the quote might be that rules written by the author can be universal, but obtaining and giving love has many ways, including those one might find if one keeps the mind open.
Abstract: The paper will discuss how Capellanus’s essay The Art of Courtly Love contributed to ideas of obtaining love in modern society, and how ways of receiving love have changed over the years. To discuss the concept of love, and its role in contemporary world research will review Verkerk, Langton, and Seebach’s works. Understanding how obtaining love transformed will be taken from Seebach’s and Russel’s books since they explain the topic from social and moral standpoints. One of the ways of obtaining love discussed by Capellanus is marriage, which will be researched using Wallerstein’s book about sustaining a good marriage.
Verkerk, W. (2017). On love, women, and friendship: reading Nietzsche with Irigaray. Nietzsche-Studien, 46(1), 135-152. Web.
The first article that will be useful for the research discusses Nietzsche’s accounts of love tied to friendship. Since Capellanus, in his third book, describes women as creatures without the natural capacity to love, the discussion of Nietzsche, who partly shared Capellanus’s opinion, will be helpful. The article debates mixed-gender friendship, which Nietzsche viewed as impossible due to settled stereotypes and gender roles (Verkerk, 2017). It is known that the deconstruction of parts women play in society started a few centuries ago after Capellanus or Nietzsche wrote their works. Therefore, this article will help compare and analyze their works and better understand how one can obtain love in modern society.
Langton, R. (2018). Love and solipsism. In Love analyzed (pp. 123-152). Routledge.
The second source is a chapter called “Love and Solipsism” from Rae Langton’s book. The chapter discussed the Kantian view of love, which can also be compared to Capellanus’s work to analyze his perception of love more profoundly. The essay argues that Kant pessimistically views the sexual type of love, saying, “sexual love makes the loved person an object of appetite” (Langton, 2018). This chapter can also help discuss the rules of love in Capellanus’s essay, which further will enhance the discussion of the rules of love in modern society.
Seebach, S. (2017). Love and society: special social forms and the master emotion. Routledge.
The third resource is Swen Seebach’s “Love and Society” book, where she discusses the concept of love, its role in today’s world, myth, and experience of love. She argues that love is not an emotion but a second-order form, which means that love is a unique tool that bonds society together by helping people relate to one another (Seebach, 2017). Obtaining love can be achieved by pursuing social bonds, one of the research paper’s ideas. Seebach talks about social transformations in the past few centuries, which served as catalysts of love’s importance (Seebach, 2017). Therefore, this book will largely contribute to the research’s focus on how people can obtain love in modern society and how it differs from the past.
Wallerstein, J. (2019). The good marriage: How and why love lasts. Plunkett Lake Press.
The only acceptable form of love discussed in Capellanus’s second book is marriage, and thus another resource to be used is the book “The Good Marriage: How and Why Love Lasts” by Judith Wallerstein. Wallerstein (2019) interviewed around fifty couples in happy and long-lasting marriages seeking knowledge about achieving that. Marriage has long been considered the destination for people involved in romantic love. However, divorce rates in the past decades represent the downturn of the marriage institute, and thus obtaining love becomes a question. The book will contribute to answering the research question of how to obtain love in today’s society, especially in marriage.
Russell, B. (2017). Marriage and morals. Routledge.
Capellanus includes a lot of ethical discussions of love in his essay, which is why the last source is Bertrand Russel’s book “Marriage and Morals.” Russel (2017) criticizes societal norms regarding marriage, sex, and family, for which he received a Nobel prize. His discussion can help apply his critique to contemporary ideas of love and marriage. By analyzing the concept from different perspectives and moral theories, there might appear various answers to how to obtain love. Therefore, this resource will be useful in the essay.