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Titel
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Aspects of Love EXAM
Aspects of Love
This course explores how the concept of love changes across literary periods, focusing on the Renaissance and Postmodernism. Students examine how writers are shaped by their historical context and how shifting social values influence representations of love and gender.
In the Renaissance section, students analyse scenes from Romeo and Juliet and sonnets by William Shakespeare, (typically) focusing on love as structured, idealised, and tied to social order. Key concepts include the Elizabethan worldview, fate vs. free will, and sonnet form.
This is compared to postmodern texts such as Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy, Happy Endings by Margaret Atwood, and the film Her. Here, love is presented as unstable, ironic, and shaped by modern conditions, though often still driven by a desire for connection.
Students develop skills in literary and film analysis while gaining insight into how ideas about love, identity, and gender evolve over time.
A comparative analysis shows the the premise that writers are affected by the time they live in, and new social conditions and moral values have an impact on how literature describes different aspects of love.
Renaissance: Love as hierarchical, patriarchal, tied to family honor and obedience (Romeo and Juliet). Love = order, beauty, harmony
Vs
Postmodernism: Love as negotiated, unstable, sometimes exploitative or commodified Love = uncertainty, fragmentation, irony
Shakespeare both praises and critiques love Vs Postmodern writers still long for connection
Main objectives:
• Gain an understanding of Renaissance values and the Elizabethan World view
• Have the ability to analyse sonnets structures and theme
• Use knowledge about the Renaissance in an analysis of the characters in Romeo and Juliet
• Acquire knowledge about societal matters which makes it possible to explain why texts from the Renaissance versus the Postmodern era portray love (and gender) differently
Materials:
The Renaissance (early 16th century – early 17th century)
• Scenes from Romeo and Juliet: Prologue, Act 1, scene 5: Holy Palmer’s Kiss, Act 2,
scene 2: The balcony scene.
• Sonnet 18 "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" by William Shakespeare: (1609)
• Sonnet 130 "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" by William Shakespeare, (609)
Postmodernism (1980-)
• Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy (poem, 2004)
• The film "Her" (2013) by Spike Jonze
• Happy Endings by Margareth Atwood (short story, 1983)
• Heidi Priebe, "We Don't Always End Up with the Lovers of Our Lives (and) That's Okay", 2016, Thought Catalog. - opinion article
Supplementary materials:
• Shakespearean Sonnet Basic (handout)
RELEVANT TERMINOLOGY (DIVIDED INTO SECTIONS):
LITERARY PERIODS AND CONTEXT:
Renaissance
The Elizabethan World Picture (Great Chain of Being, Wheel of Fortune)
Humanism
Fate vs. free will
Postmodernism
DRAMA:
Play, tragedy
Tragic hero, tragic flaw
Aside, soliloquy, dramatic irony
POETRY AND FORM:
Sonnet, quatrain, (heroic) couplet
Iambic, iambic pentameter
Blank verse (unrhymed, regular meter)
Free verse (no fixed meter)
Prose
LOVE AND RELATIONSHIPS:
True love, romantic love, unconditional love
Obsessive love
Platonic/familial love
THEMES AND CONCEPTS:
Gender roles, stereotypes, gender identity
Alienation, fragmentation
The mundane
Conceptual breakdown (redefining familiar ideas)
Dækkes ift. lærerplanen:
- uddrag af værker af Shakespeare
-væsentlige strømninger i britisk og amerikansk litteraturhistorie
- standardsprog og variation, herunder elementer af det engelske sprogs udvikling
- tekstanalytiske begreber og metoder til analyse af fiktive og ikke-fiktive tekster
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