This weeks Rose café was one of the most enjoyable because Sara is so passionate about the work she is studying and you can tell how excited she gets to share it with us. Sara works on romance in the classic sense which may be contrary to ones instinctive understanding of romance in literature. In history romantic literature is characterized by fantasy, magic, love, disruption of authority and general escapes from reality. By explaining the roots of romance back to medieval literature Sara really opened up my understanding of the definition of romance of a genre.
We also spent some time relating these research topics to modern day. Sara told us of her plans to make her current research into a historically comprehensive book about romance literature into modern day. We talked about how social media and consumer culture is in itself a function of romance; allowing us to escape from reality and choose our modes of perception. Another interesting part of this discussion was peoples expressed interest in fantasy and romance in their younger teen years. I wonder what this means about the link between fantasy and romance and what role that plays in the maturation process. Also, how does fantasy and romance maintain a role in our lives through altered forms/mediums and we become increasingly immersed in realistic adulthood?
What you said about fantasy in our younger years was really interesting. I was much more imaginative as a child than I am now; I suppose this is the case for most others. For our own survival, we humans have adapted to be practical and realistic. It is sad that we lose that childlike wonder as we get older, though. But I do think we retain some imagination in adulthood because innovation is necessary for our survival, too. So, I guess our “imagination” and creativity simply becomes more realistic, practical, and applicable as adults.
woah! Sounds like a kooky and fun cafe. I definitely relate to the people who said they had a lot of interest in these romance type things in the middle school era of my life. I would literally just watch a billion romantic comedies that all had the same story pretty much. I also think actually being in love and experience that rush changes what you think of all those movies and all those fantasies. When I was going through this literal heartbreak I looked up the science behind my feelings, it wasn’t fair that some boyyyy was making me feel all these negative things!! So, I found out basically that our brain gets addicted to the feeling of love and once it’s gone (aka he breaks up with you), you physically long for it and that directly affects your emotions.