The lost innocence of love - Romance as a postmodern condition

Journal/Book: Theor Cult Soc. 1998; 15: 6 Bonhill Street, London, England EC2a 4Pu. Sage Publications Ltd. 161+.

Abstract: This article examines the relationship between 'mass media' representations of love and a model of love which we commonly view as more 'realistic', that is more compatible with sharing everyday life with another. The article offers three arguments: (I) the postmodern claim that everyday life in general and romantic love in particular have been colonized by the empty 'simulacrum' of mass media resonates with a long-standing Western discussion of the problematic relation between fiction and reality; (2) the relation between mass media representations of love and realistic models of love is reconceptualized as deriving from two conflicting bodily experiences of love; (3) postmodern love is defined as being characterized by a particular crisis of representation in which signifiers and signifieds of love do not match.

Note: Article Illouz E, Tel Aviv Univ, Dept Sociol, IL-69978 Tel Aviv, ISRAEL

Keyword(s): LIFE

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