After reading a bit of
Capellanus’ The Art of Courtly Love, I’ll
have to admit that I am most certainly intrigued…
There wasn’t too much
of the text that lost my interest and I was pleasantly surprised to see just
how many thought-provoking similarities there were between Capellanus’
definition of love and our modern understanding of the term. Going into the
reading this week with the expectation of seeing many stark differences was a
great outlook to have as it allowed me to take better notice of the similarities
that I honestly wasn’t expecting to find. For instance, the notion that “the
easy attainment of love makes it of little value [while] difficulty of attainment
makes it prized,” (Capellanus) is clearly something that we still witness /
value in our society today. Especially speaking as a female, there have been
countless times throughout my life that the term “playing hard to get” has come
up in some sort of context or another (and I say especially speaking as a
female because – at least from my perspective – this term is usually reserved
for / said in reference to a woman). The notion that a lover’s value
(specifically a woman’s) increases alongside the level of difficulty it takes
to win their affection, a notion that is still very much alive and well today,
comes directly from the concept of courtly love.
Indeed looking back at
the readings for this week it becomes clear that the ideals of the medieval
period still play an incredibly integral role in how our modern society
constructs and stereotypes gender roles. For example, the classic 21st
century cliché of a “whipped man” and a “controlling wife” are again direct
products of courtly love. The ideal male lover of the medieval age was expected
to serve his lady who, as Dr. Thompson points out, was often depicted as “cold
and cruel.” This was honestly the part of the reading that stuck out to me the
most, as I wasn’t previously aware that our modern concept / stereotype of a
subservient or “whipped” male – and by association the “controlling” female - was
a product of courtly love (now I know who to blame).
However while I wasn’t
expecting to notice so many similarities at the start of my reading this week,
I’m certainly glad that I did. These similarities unexpectedly drove me deep
into thought and I spent a much longer time than I ever originally intended considering
the ways in which our society still reflects the remnants of medieval courtly
love as opposed to all the ways in which the two are so starkly different. At
first I thought that the differences would be more intriguing; that their
examination and consideration would be the best way for me to begin to develop
an understanding of courtly love. That clearly wasn’t the case. I actually
found it much harder to connect with or relate to the differences. To my
surprise it was the similarities between Capellanus’ medieval definition of love
and my modern understanding of the term that provided the most useful for
consideration.
