Besede o ljubezni: ljubezen v filozofiji, literaturi in umetnosti (predgovor)
Dejan Kos, Andrea Leskovec, Špela Virant
Ljubezen je kot temeljna človeška izkušnja vseskozi del literarnega diskurza. Zdi se celo, da se z literaturo vzpostavlja posebno mesto njene obravnave. Ker se ljubezen manifestira kot niz kulturno podedovanih standardnih vzorcev občutenja, razmišljanja, vedenja in govorjenja, je njena opredelitev mogoča le v okviru dane kulturne tradicije in v določenem družbeno-zgo-dovinskem kontekstu. To hkrati pomeni, da se motiv ljubezni v raznih družbenih in kulturnih kontekstih izraža na različne načine. Govorimo lahko o družbenem pojmovanju ljubezni in o literarni tematizaciji ljubezni.
Za kodiranje ljubezni je značilna posebna razvojna dinamika, ki se ne prekriva v celoti z zgodovinskim, družbenim in kulturnim kontekstom. Po eni strani naj bi to neskladje (po mnenju Rolanda Barthesa) izviralo iz vse večje individualizacije ljubezenskega diskurza, po drugi strani pa iz nenehne nejasnosti ljubezni kot čustva. Zdi se, da je prav slednja bistvena lastnost (literarne) tematizacije ljubezni. Spričo tega se odpira vprašanje, ali literarni ljubezenski diskurz vsebuje univerzalne strukture, ki presegajo njegovo kontekstualno pogojenost. Tematski sklop o obravnavi ljubezni v filozofiji in različnih umetnosti se v osnovi osredotoča na vprašanje njene univerzalnosti. Zanima nas, ali znanstvena obravnava tematike lahko potrjuje naslednje predpostavke, ki nekako veljajo za ljubezensko tematiko v evropskem kontekstu, ali jih je treba modificirati. Sem spadata vsaj naslednja temeljna sklopa: 1. Trditve, ki jih določena družba oblikuje spričo lastnega pojmovanja ljubezni, se pogosto ujemajo na ahistorični ravni — kljub specifičnim metafizičnim, antropološkim, psihološkim, kognitivnim in biološkim utemeljitvam. 2. Zdi se, da je literarnim tematizacijam ljubezni skupno vsaj eno: slabitev družbenih norm (prim. Luhmann).
Tema tematskega sklopa pa ni »ljubezen«, temveč ljubezen kot del literarnega diskurza. Ne sprašujemo se torej, kaj je ljubezen, ampak kako je obravnavana v literaturi, in sicer v najširšem pomenu besede. Drugače rečeno: zdi se, da se v literarnem ljubezenskem diskurzu zgodovinski in nezgodovinski vidiki povezujejo. Po eni strani literatura obravnava ljubezen v njeni odvisnosti od vrednot, norm in navad različnih obdobij, po drugi strani pa poskuša uveljaviti univerzalni jezik ljubezni.
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Primerjalna književnost (Ljubljana) 39.1 (2016)
PKn, letnik 39, št 1, Ljubljana, junij 2016
Lahko rečemo, da je od obdobja moderne dalje mogoče zaznati upad tradicionalnih obravnav ljubezni, ki mu botrujejo številni kulturnozgodovinski in sociološki dejavniki. Odločilna se zdi pri tem skrajna individuali-zacija (prim. Beck in Giddens). Toda ta upad ne vodi do konca kolektivnih zamisli o ljubezni, pač pa do njihove korenite reprodukcije. Na ta način se neulovljivost koncepta ljubezni sicer še okrepi, vendar se hkrati odpira tudi nov prostor njegove refleksije. K sodobnemu kodiranju ljubezni zato najbrž prispeva tudi pomanjkanje jasnih in zavezujočih pomenov. Je potemtakem vsak poskus govora o ljubezni poljuben? Po drugi strani se pod vplivom (post)modernega pomenskega deficita ljubezen pojmuje kot nov mit, ki pomeni prestopanje mej med individualnim in kolektivnim hotenjem. V zvezi s tem nas je zanimalo, ali obstajajo koncepti ljubezni, ki presegajo tradicionalno in (post)moderno pojmovanje ljubezni in ki bi jih lahko razumeli kot alternative obstoječim konceptom. S tem vprašanjem se je ukvarjal zlasti Bernhard Waldenfels.
Tematski sklop sestavlja deset člankov, ki se delijo v tri skupine. Prva dva članka obravnavata filozofski oziroma teoretski pristop k pojmovanju ljubezni. Sledijo članki, ki obravnavajo literarne reprezentacije ljubezni v posameznih literarnih obdobjih in konkretnih literarnih delih. Sklop sklene skupina prispevkov, ki dano tematiko raziskujejo na stičiščih literature s filmom, likovno umetnostjo in glasbo.
V	članku Odzivna ljubezen Bernhard Waldenfels razvija svoj koncept responzivne fenomenologije, ki se v nasprotju z intencionalno, eksistencialno in strukturalno fenomenologijo navezuje na patično razsežnost izkustva. S pomočjo osrednjih pojmov, kot so patos, odziv in diastasis, začrta model responzivnosti, ki temelji na določeni vzajemnosti: odzivam se na to, kar se mi dogaja, in sicer na način, ki naj ne bi bil statičen, stereotipski, ampak je vsakič specifičen, kajti izumiti moramo, kako se bomo odzvali, ne moremo pa izumiti, na kaj se bomo odzvali. Alexandru Matei se v članku Ljubezen kot krepost: Non vouloir saisir ali Utopija naklonjenosti v delu Fragmenti ljubezenskega diskurza Rolanda Barthesa ukvarja s »figuro« ljubezni, imenovano non vouloir saisir ali odsotnost želje po posedovanju, ki se staplja s pojmom nevtralnosti. Opisuje razkorak med evropskim afektom (želja po posedovanju) in nevtralnostjo kot nečim, kar Matei imenuje »utopični afekt« in kar je po mnenju avtorja v evropskem kulturnem prostoru nemogoče doseči.
V	Literarnih definicijah ljubezni se Špela Virant osredotoči na različne poskuse definiranja ljubezni, ki jih najdemo v literarnih besedilih. Posebno pozornost posveča perspektivi, iz katere ljubezen opazujejo, in strukturam, ki jih pri tem uporabljajo. Maja Šabec se v prispevku Med usmiljenjem in poželenjem: dvorski ljubezenski kodeks v španski književnosti 15. stoletja osredo-
Dejan Kos, Andrea Leskovec, Špela Virant: Besede o ljubezni (predgovor)
toča na dvoumno vlogo usmiljenja (pietas) kot dejavnika, od katerega je odvisen razplet ljubezenskega procesa. Dvorska etika je v tem vidiku sledila krščanskemu nauku in dami zapovedala usmiljenja dejanja, vendar zgolj ob predpostavki, da moški ne bo zlorabil njenega zaupanja. Maja Šabec pa ugotavlja, kako dvoumna metaforika usmiljenja v ljubezenski dialogih odpira interpretacije, v katerih prevladujejo polteni vzgibi obeh udeležencev. V prispevku Ljubezen in hrepenenje: absolutna želja od romantike do modernizma se Peter V. Zima posveti vprašanju romantične ljubezni, ki jo razume kot hrepenenje po odsotnem objektu ljubezni. Na primerih prikaže, kako se motiv večnega hrepenenja pojavlja v izbranih literarnih delih. Primerjava treh pisemskih romanov je v središču prispevka Iskanje ljubezni v romanih Werther, Jacopo Ortis in Leandros: Primerjalna analiza treh romantičnih pisemskih romanov iz Nemčije, Italije in Grčije. Avtorja Stefan Lindinger in Maria Sgouridou raziskujeta različna pojmovanja ljubezni v teh delih z ozirom na vprašanje, kako močno sta Werther in lacopo Ortis vplivala na Leandrosa, ki je bil ključnega pomena za osnovanje nove grške nacionalne literature po ustanovitvi nove nacionalne države. Ljubinka Petrovic-Ziemer v prispevku Družinski ljubezenski diskurz v sodobni nemški dramatiki in gledališču obravnava vprašanje, kako sodobna nemška dramatika naslavlja in uprizarja tematiko ljubezni v smislu družbenih zvez in emocionalnih investicij v tradicionalnih in nekonvencionalnih družinskih strukturah. Ugotavlja, da nemško dramatiko zaznamuje posebno zanimanje za nasilje in eksces in da obstaja težnja po demontiranju mita o zanesljivi družinski ljubezni.
Željko Uvanovic v prispevku Moški, zaljubljeni v umetne ženske: Peščeni mož E. T. A. Hofmanna, Stepfordske ženske Ire Levina in njune filmske priredbe osvetljuje t. i. pigmalionizem in ljubezen do lutk ter postopke, ki jih avtorji uporabijo za upodobitev grozljivih okoliščin, v katerih moški, povezani v sovražni zaroti, proizvajajo nadomestke žensk. Za primerjavo poetik dveh umetnikov (José Leonilson in Louise Bourgeois) gre v prispevku Ane Lucie Beck z naslovom Krvaveče besede. Avtorica prikaže, kako umetnika obravnavata ljubezen kot metaforo življenja in smrti. Zadnji prispevek tematskega sklopa z naslovom »Vzemi si k srcu te pesmi«: Ljubezen, eros in umetniška produkcija v 19. stoletju Dominika Pensela rekonstruira konkreten glasbeno-literarni model proizvajanja umetnosti z močjo ljubezni. Pri tem se osredotoči na dela Goetheja, Beethovna in E. T. A. Hoffmanna.
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Words on Love: Love in Philosophy, Literature, and Art (An Introduction)
Dejan Kos, Andrea Leskovec, and Špela Virant
Love, as a fundamental human experience, has always been a part of literary discourse. Since the beginnings of written culture, all periods, styles, and genres have thematized love in its various incarnations. Literature seems to be a place predestined to negotiate love. The semantics of love could be determined as a set of culturally passed down standardizations for feeling, thinking, acting, and speaking, structuring the love life.
Embeddedness within a particular cultural tradition and within a specific socio-historical context appears to be crucial for the identification of an utterance, sense, or act as belonging to the coding of love. As a consequence, the motif of love displays a variety of implications and characteristics in different social and cultural contexts. There are at least two different levels: the social conceptualization of love and the literary the-matizing of love.
However, the coding of love features specific developmental dynamics, and so it is never completely compatible with the contextual factors that seem to determine its nature. On the one hand, according to Roland Barthes, this is founded in an increasing individualization of the love discourse. On the other hand, this inconsistency is due to the continual vagueness of love as a feeling. It is this inconsistency or uncertainty that seems to be a constitutive marker of the (literary) discourse of love. Under these circumstances, the question arises whether the literary discourse of love features universal structures beyond its historical, social, and cultural dependence. Specifically, 1) society's concepts of love often make ahistori-cal claims, regardless of their metaphysical, anthropological, psychological, cognitive, and biological justification, and 2) the literary thematizations of love seem to have at least one thing in common; namely, the weakening of social norms (cf. Luhmann).
However, the theme of this set of thematic articles is not "love," but love as part of literary discourses. Thus, we do not ask what love is, but how it is negotiated in literary discourse in the broadest sense. Put another
Primerjalna književnost (Ljubljana) 39.1 (2016)
PKn, letnik 39, št 1, Ljubljana, junij 2016
way: historical and ahistorical perspectives appear to collide in literary discourses of love. On the one hand, these discourses address love in its dependence on the values, norms, and conventions of different epochs; on the other hand, they try to establish a universal language of love.
In modern times, it can be stated that the traditional semantics of love and its numerous underlying cultural, historical, and sociological factors are in decline. However, it is the extreme individualization (modernization and individualization theory; cf. Beck & Giddens) that seems to be decisive. Nevertheless, this decline does not mean the end of collective ideas of love; rather, it stimulates a radical duplication and volatilization of the ideas of love and the opportunities to speak about it. The lack of clear and binding semantics might possibly contribute to the normalizing notions of love. Is any attempt to speak about love solipsistic? Then again, under the influence of a (post)modern lack of meaning, love is stylized as a new myth, which stands for a crossing of borders between the individual and collective desire. In this context, the question is whether there are any alternative concepts that transcend the traditional and (post)modern idea of love. Bernhard Waldenfels deals with this question in his article, which serves as an introduction to the set of thematic articles.
The set consists of three groups of articles. The first concentrates on philosophical questions, and the second on literary representations of love in selected literary texts. The third group of articles deals with the topic of love at the junctions between literature and film, art, and music.
In his article "Responsive Love," Bernhard Waldenfels approaches the issue of love from the perspective of responsive phenomenology. In contrast to intentional, existential, or structural phenomenology, this goes back to apathic dimension of experience. With key concepts like pathos, response, and diastasis, he draws a model of responsivity that is based on interactivity: people respond to what is happening to them in a way that should not be static or stereotypical, but always specific: they have to invent how they respond, but they do not invent what they respond to. In his article "Love as Morality: The Non-Will-to-Possess or the Utopia of Affectivity in Roland Barthes's A Lover's Discourse," Alexandru Matei talks about the "figure" of love that Barthes calls non vouloir saisir (non-will-to-possess), which merges with the notion of neutral. This is the shift between a European affect (love as will-to-possess) and the neutral affect, or what Matei calls a "utopian affect": an affect that the author assumes to be impossible in the European cultural context.
In the article "Literary Definitions of Love," Spela Virant concentrates on various attempts to define love that can be found in fictional texts. She focuses on the perspective of observing love and the structure applied in
Dejan Kos, Andrea Leskovec, Spela Virant: Words on Love (An Introduction)
these texts. In her article "Between Mercy and Lechery: The Courtly Love Codex in Spanish Literature of the Fifteenth Century," Maja Sabec focuses on the ambiguous role of mercy (pietas) being the element that determines the disentanglement of the love process. Courtly etiquette followed Christian teaching and demanded acts of mercy from a lady—however, on the condition that a man would not betray her trust. Maja Sabec concludes that the ambiguous metaphor of mercy in the dialogues opens up a broad area of interpretations, among which first place is taken by the salacious urges of both participants. In the article "Love and Longing: Absolute Desire from Romanticism to Modernism," Peter V. Zima examines the topic of romantic love, understood as the longing for an absent object of love. He shows how this kind of desire appears in the works of selected authors.
The article "Looking for Love in Werther, Jacopo Ortis, and Leandros: A Comparative Analysis of Three Romantic Epistolary Novels from Germany, Italy, and Greece" compares three epistolary novels. The authors Stefan Lindinger in Maria Sgouridou investigate the various concepts of love in these works and the question of the influence of Werther and Jacopo Ortis on Leandros, an important work in the context of the "arrival" of both the Greek national state and Greek literature.
In her article "Familial Love Discourses in Contemporary German-Language Drama and Theater," Ljubinka Petrovic-Ziemer explores the topic of love in terms of social commitment and emotional investment within traditional and unconventional family arrangements. In contemporary drama she finds a growing interest in the phenomenon of violence and excess, and the tendency to dismantle the myth of infallible family love.
Zeljko Uvanovic's article "Men in Love with Artificial Women: E. T. A. Hoffmann's 'The Sandman,' Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives, and their Film Adaptations" examines the phenomenon of Pygmalionism and agal-matophilia and the strategies used by different authors to create the horror circumstances of the production of surrogate women by men united in a conspiracy of hatred. Ana Lucia Beck uses a comparative approach to the poetics of Louise Bourgeois and Jose Leonilson. In her article "Bleeding Words," she shows that both artists use the topic of love as a metaphor for life and death. The last text in this set of thematic articles, with the title "'Take to Your Heart These Songs:' Love, Eros, and Artistic Production in the Nineteenth Century," by Dominik Pensel, is a reconstruction of a romantic model of artistic production based on the power of love. He focuses on the works of Goethe, Beethoven, and E. T. A. Hoffmann.
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