Literary Definitions of Love

Abstract

In the literature of modern age western societies it is possible to find a great number of definitions of love. These fictional definitions imitate a rational, scientific approach to the question, what love is. They emulate the structure of scientific definitions (definiendum, copulative verb, definiens), but they do not observe love from a distanced, objective point of view as it is necessary for a scientific understanding of the object. The article gives examples of fictional definitions of love from English and German lyrics and novels, including poems by Andrew Marvell, William Shakespeare, Erich Fried, and novels by Erich Kästner, Heinz Helle, Thomas Hettche and Paul Auster. The analysis of the chosen passages shows that fictional definitions use a kind of double perspective, observing and describing love from the distance and from the personal experience of being in love at the same time. They use variations of the common structure of definitions (for example circular definitions), irony, proliferation of the definiens, and contextualization of the definition in the narratives. Some of these textual strategies can be traced back to the Bible and to Plato’s Symposium and Timaeus. In this way it becomes obvious that fictional definitions of love do not refer only to the modern scientific discourse, but also to the basic texts of European philosophical and religious thought. In opposition to scientific definitions they enhance the ambiguity of the word love and subvert the dualistic thinking that strictly separates reason from emotion. The reader cannot get the definite answer to the question, what love is, only the idea, what love might be, and the possibility to relate to experiences other people made with it.