Special Session at PAMLA conference 2023: 'What's in a Love Story?' Love and Storytelling
On love being analogous to a battlefield, Roland Barthes writes: “From what language, one wonders, did these lovesick, melancholy grenadiers draw their passion (scarcely in accord with the image of their class and profession)? What books had they read–or what stories been told?” Following Barthes’ indicative questions, this panel inquires into the connection between love–as an idea, experience, or emotion–and the stories we have been telling about it over the long course of history. Can one imagine love without stories? What is the relationship between different forms of desire and the literary forms that bear their weight? How do changes in global storytelling practices transform our ideas of love?