Course description
Is romantic love a universal phenomenon or does it vary from culture to culture? Moreover, are traditional ideas of romantic love, whatever the culture, the same as modern ones? Does romantic love have a future? Cultural historians and anthropologists have different theories and point of view on these questions, some emphasizing the biological bases of romantic emotions and others emphasizing the cultural construction of the notion of romantic love. In this course, we will use two famous literary texts to explore the different traditional ideas of romantic love produced by two very different cultures, one Eastern and one Western. The Eastern text will be Murasaki Shikibu's famous Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji; c.1010) and the Western one will be Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1595?). After discussing some of the main theories about romantic love, we will first look at the development of the aristocratic concept of love in Heian Japan, considering the social, religious and cultural background. We will also look at the literary antecedents of the Genji Monogatari, such as the poetic genre of waka, the stories about waka and love, such as the Ise Monogatari, and diaries by court ladies, such as the Kagero Nikki. We will then look at some of the love affairs described in the Genji Monogatari itself. Of course, as a great work of literature, the text does not merely express the Heian idea of love but it also offers a kind of commentary on it, and so we will consider what it is that Murasaki Shikibu, one of the world's earliest and most important female writers, wants to say about love through her narrative. We will then examine some later responses to the Genji Monogatari in Japan and consider whether the idea of love in the text still has any influence within Japanese culture or whether it has been replaced by a conception primarily influenced by Western culture. In the second half of the course, we will turn to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Again, we will place the depiction of love in the play in the Elizabethan social and cultural context, looking at the ideas of love which Shakespeare inherited from the Courtly Love tradition and the Petrarchan sonnet. We will examine the sources of Shakespeare's play and also the development of the love sonnet in 16th-century England. We will then examine what Shakespeare wants to say about romantic love through the play and the different responses that the play has evoked over time. In particular, we will consider what gives the play its perennial appeal and has allowed it to flourish in contemporary culture.
The course will be taught in a seminar style, with an emphasis upon the students' responses to the texts. At the same time, students will be encouraged to think about their own notions of romantic love and the sources of these notions. The two texts chosen for discussion are not only profound works of literature, but they are also indisputably parts of what is increasingly coming to be called world literature. From this point of view, neither text any longer belongs to only one tradition, but both have proved their ability to appeal to audiences all over the world, whatever their cultural background. What is it about these texts that have allowed them to travel from their original contexts and to live in different temporal and cultural contexts? Does this appeal have any connection to the romantic themes of the texts and does it say anything about the question of the universality or the cultural specificity of the notions of love on which they are based?

Learning outcomes of the course
In this course, the students will not only learn about two great works of literature, but they will also reflect upon the question of cultural difference in connection to the theme of romantic love. The course will provide an introduction to two great periods of cultural flourishing, the Heian court of Japan and the Renaissance in England.

Teaching and evaluation methods
The course will be taught in seminar style, with student presentations and discussions. T
he final grade will be decided in the following way:
participation (25%);
presentations　(25%);
final paper (50%).

Syllabus
Week 1: Introduction: Romantic Love: East and West
Week 2: Romantic Love in Heian Culture
Week 3: Literary Antecedents to The Tale of Genji
Week 4: The Tale of Genji (1)
Week 5: The Tale of Genji (2)
Week 6: The Tale of Genji (3)
Week 7: Later responses to The Tale of Genji
Week 8: Courtly Love and Petrarchanism
Week 9: (Midterm)
Week 10: Romeo and Juliet (1)
Week 11: Romeo and Juliet (2)
Week 12: Romeo and Juliet (3)
Week 13: Comparisons and contrasts
Week 14 (Final)

Bibliography
Primary texts:
Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji, translated by Edward Seidensticker
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
(Both texts can be downloaded from the Internet.)
Further reading:
Victor Kalandeshev, Romantic Love in Cultural Contexts, Springer, 2017
William M. Reddy, The Making of Romantic Love, University of Chicago Press, 2012
William Jankowiak ed., Romantic Passion: A Universal Experience? Columbia University Press, 1997

No preliminary knowledge required