Liebe und Emergenz

As a dynamic phenomenon, 'cultural memory' is also regulated by emotions. Emotions are part and parcel of social, historical, and cultural modes of being and exert a decisive influence on them. The articles in this volume examine the symbolism, function, and significance of the love affect in French texts from the period 1650 and 1750 in terms of what they have to tell us about the development of cultural memory. The articles concentrate systematically on the forms taken by the understanding of affects at the time and trace the emergence of new models against the background of notions of eros, philia, and agape. The fruits of these studies are culture-semiotic perspectives on love, indicating a higher level of reflection on the understanding of affects and defining for the first time from a theory-guided viewpoint the new positions taking shape in the historical/anthropological field. The volume also contains a comprehensive research bibliography.