Courtly Love, the Love of Courtliness, and the History of SexualityOne of the great achievements of the Middle Ages, Europe’s courtly culture gave the world the tournament, the festival, the knighting ceremony, and also courtly love. But courtly love has strangely been ignored by historians of sexuality. With Courtly Love, the Love of Courtliness, and the History of Sexuality, James Schultz corrects this oversight with careful analysis of key courtly texts of the medieval German literary tradition. Courtly love, Schultz finds, was provoked not by the biological and intrinsic factors that play such a large role in our contemporary thinking about sexuality—sex difference or desire—but by extrinsic signs of class: bodies that were visibly noble and behaviors that represented exemplary courtliness. Individuals became “subjects” of courtly love only to the extent that their love took the shape of certain courtly roles such as singer, lady, or knight. They hoped not only for physical union but also for the social distinction that comes from realizing these roles to perfection. To an extraordinary extent, courtly love represented the love of courtliness—the eroticization of noble status and the courtly culture that celebrated noble power and refinement |
Common terms and phrases
Albrecht aphrodisiac body attributes beauty behavior Belacane beloved Blanscheflur Brangaene breasts Bumke Cadden cause chapter Chrétien concupiscence Condwiramurs constraints court courtly love dawn songs devoted Dinshaw display Eneas êre Erec Erec and Enite erotic fall in love female fiction fight Foucault Gahmuret Gawan Gawein gender gewan Gottfried Gottfried von Straßburg Gramoflanz Gunther guot Hartmann Hartmann von Aue heart herze Herzeloyde heterosexuality history of sexuality Höfische Holsinger homosexual Iwein Jeschute knightly knights Kriemhild lady Laudine Lavinia Liebe lîp lips look love service lovers maiden male marriage masculine medieval MHG writers mîn minne Minnesangs Minnesangs Frühling Morungen Moser/Tervooren narrator Nibelungenlied niht nobility noble Orgeluse Parzival Parzival's penis pleasure provoke radiance Reinmar relations reward Riwalin role scene Schnell serve sex difference Siegfried sîn single singer suffering takes tells Titurel Tristan and Isold Veldeke Walther wîbe Willehalm wîp Wolfram von Eschenbach woman women