Original scientific paper
ROMANTIC LOVE
Tea Škokić
orcid.org/0000-0002-4013-7875
; Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This article analyzes three concepts of romantic love. The feminist
approach considers romantic love, as it is recognized and evaluated
today, as a product of the West. Feminists consider that Western
culture, with its capitalist discourse and coding, turns emotional
love into a desirable form of love behavior and speech. In that sense the representation of romantic love is yet another kind of control over women and their emotional needs. The second approach, represented by Anthony Giddens, considers romantic love as liberating, for women in the first place. The democratism of
romantic love which is propagated with this approach, is subject to
a particular critique regarding Giddens's stated argumentation.
Finally, the author presents the third concept advocated by
anthropologists, which is outlined in the question: Is romantic love
a product of the West or is it a universal phenomenon, and how is
that problem explored in ethnographic materials?
Keywords
romantic love; commodification of love; universal romance
Hrčak ID:
24614
URI
Publication date:
23.6.2004.
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