Love, Romance

"Romantic love" is a general term referring to the connection between "love" and the general idea of "romance", according to more traditional usages of the terms. more...

Home
ANRI
All God's Children
Andrea by Sadek
Armani
Avon
Bing & Grondahl Coll Plates
Blue Sky Clayworks
Boyds
Bradford Exchange
Byers Choice
Cat's Meow Village
Charming Tails
Friends, Friendship
Love, Romance
Other Items
Seasons
Christopher Radko
Danbury Mint
David Winter
Dept 56
Dreamsicles
Duncan Royale
Enesco
Faberge
Fitz & Floyd
Flambro
Franklin Mint
HOMCO
Halcyon Days
Hallmark
Hamilton Collector Plates
Harbour Lights
Harmony Kingdom
Hummel, Goebel
Josef
Knowles Collector Plates
Lefton Figurines
Lenox
Liberty Falls
Lilliput Lane
Limoges
Lladro
Longaberger
Madame Alexander
Margaret Furlong
Mary Engelbreit
Midwest of Cannon Falls
Norman Rockwell
Old World
Other Brands
PartyLite
Patricia Breen
Pendelfin
Polonaise
Precious Moments
Rein Poortvliet
Roman
Royal Copenhagen Coll Plates
Royal Doulton
San Francisco Music Box
Sarah's Attic
Schmid
Sebastian Miniatures
Shelia's
Slavic Treasures
Swarovski
Thomas Kinkade
Tom Clark
Unbranded
Wade Figurines
Wedgwood
Willitts
Willow Tree

Historically the term "romance" did not necessarily imply love relationships, but rather was seen as an artistic expression of one's innermost desires; sometimes including love, sometimes not. Romance is still sometimes viewed as an expressionistic, or artful form, but within the context of "romantic love" relationships it usually implies an expression of one's love, or one's deep emotional desires to connect with another person. It is exaggerated or decorated (more exiting than they really are) expression of love. "Romance" in this sense can therefore be defined as attachment, fascination, or enthusiasm for something or someone.

Overview

Romantic love is contrasted with Platonic love. All usages of Platonic love precludes sexual relations, yet only in the modern usage does it take on a fully asexual sense, rather than the classical sense in which sexual drives are sublimated. Sublimation often tends to be forgotten in casual thought about love aside from its emergence in psychoanalysis and Nietzsche. (For an account of the way the modern usage of this term is distinguished from its original sense involving sublimation, see the article Platonic love.) Unrequited love can be romantic, if only in a comic or tragic sense, or in the sense that sublimation itself is comparable to romance, where the spirituality of both art and egalitarian ideals is combined with strong character and emotions. This situation is typical of the period of Romanticism, but that term is distinct from any romance that might arise within it. Romantic love might be requited emotionally and physically while not being consummated, to which one or both parties might agree.

In romantic love, according to the more modern Western definitions of the term, lovers often transcend worldly qualities, not only seeking deeper love, but perhaps also raising questions about a more ultimate meaning (not an uncommon sort of question in any case). This area of concern, related to philosophical questions of identity and personhood, is addressed below (5). Furthermore, romance is not only dispersed with and even inherently related to family life, but often is to some extent or entirely free, in the sense free of interruption, or in some more radical sense, as free from various customs and traditions.

Also, romance is, or has become, a major aspect of postmodernity, and its criteria primarily includes fashion and irony. Sexual revolutions have brought such changes about. Wit or irony encompass the inherent instability of romance, fine-tuned to its late modern peculiarities. This phenomenon is often expressed in popular culture as "throwing game." Love and marriage clearly were always ironic, but not to this degree. In Marxism the romantic might be considered an example of alienation. In his theory of mimetic desire, Girard attempts to make sense of such phenomena, focusing on the conflict between romance's individuality and jealousy. Yet in its independent mode (i.e., rather than as a change within a relationship) it tends to be a tragic region lying somewhere between on the one hand an ethical, and on the other hand an aesthetic (or possibly debauched) life, combining significance with ennui.

Read more at Wikipedia.org