Study On Courtly Love In European Medieval Literature

Courtly love originated in France in the second half of the 11 th century and became prevalent in Germany,Italy,and Spain.Courtly love is the result of a combination of several cultural factors,both inside and outside Europe.As a model of relationship between men and women in medieval Europe,courtly love is one of the main descriptions of literary works in the 11 th and 13 th centuries,with lyric poems and romance as the main genres.Courtly love subverts the form of male superiority in ancient European literature and creates a new relationship of literary ethics,which injects new vitality into the literary creation at that time.The first chapter discusses the origin of courtly love.The rudiments of courtly love originated in ancient Roman literature.Under the influence of Ovid's Ars amatoria,poets in the Carolingian period began to construct the concept of courtly love.The creation of courtly love literature was also deeply influenced by foreign cultures: trade and the Crusades introduced Arab culture to Europe;the barbarians who settled down in Europe also brought fresh blood to European culture;social reality led noble women to disappointed in marriage and gradually turned to the imaginary world to find perfect love;after the 11 th century,Christianity gradually began to lose control over people's ideology,and the church placed its hopes on people in literary works.A variety of factors under the harmony of Christianity gave birth to unique and courtly love literature.The second chapter discusses the characteristics and definition of courtly love.In reality,courtly love is just a game that kills time among nobles.It is a means by which the ruling class safeguards its own interests.It is also a powerful tool for shaping social morality.In literary works,courtly love is a concept of love that exists between the opposite sex;both sides must have a certain amount of wealth as a basis;there may be a certain physical relationship between men and women,but this relationship is not an end but means Courtly love is to some extent a love with a religious nature.Men are admirers and women are objects of worship.The literary works of courtly love do not necessarily include all of the above factors.The third chapter analyzes the development of courtly love literature.The development of courtly love literature in Europe has gone through three stages.The first stage is lyric poetry.Lyric poetry was first produced in Provence in southern France and then spread to other countries around France as a center."Under the Bodhi Tree" and other popular works.The second stage is the knight narrative poem,which is divided into three systems,namely,the ancient system,the British system,and the Byzantine system.The third stage is the stage of citizen literature.Courtly love is explained in more ways at this stage.Chapter IV discusses the decline of courtly love.With the development of economy and the rise of the city,people's personal consciousness began to awaken.After having economic strength,love is no longer the exclusive privilege of the nobles,and the interpretation of love has begun to show diversity.As the hometown of courtly love,the southern region of France has been decimated by the impact of the crusade in Albigensian.A large number of poets have fled to other regions and courtly love has declined.Courtly love has shaped the morality and etiquette of Europeans,established love as a more ancient and unchanged literary theme,and created the new writing mode of heroes and beautiful women.Although courtly love is jsut a concept in literature,it still produces A huge influence upon European literature and society in later generations.