For the Sake of Allah. Anne Stephens Cuddly Bedtime Story Collection

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For example, there are striking similarities between courtly love and early modern love poetry and Christian mystical discourse Perella 85, In Christian mystical discourse, as stated above, mystics often not only use erotic language and imagery, but also the sentiments and experience of human, sensual love to describe their experiences of God, from the biblical Song of Songs to the ecstasies of Saint Theresa Perella There is talk of love, sensual delight, passion, and ecstatic union with the beloved, which is here God or Christ Perella Likewise, could Christian mystical discourse not also bear a remnant of human erotic experience as well, insomuch as the two might appear more similar than believed in both cases?

Why could the influence not flow in both directions? Why could courtly and romantic love literature not have influenced religious thinking, and why could it not become a bearer of actual religious meaning and experience? Within the romantic love tradition itself some Christian writers do correlate human and divine experiences of love. One may help to lead to or understand the other, and they are inseparable in meaning under a Christian conception of love Lewis 35, 41; Perella , In the works of medieval authors such as Andreas Capellanus, for example, courtly love was a chaste and ennobling discipline, whose end was grace bestowed by the lady, grace that elevated the knight to blessedness Lewis 33; Perella But this [End Page 3] blessedness was not just in a secular sphere, or for secular delights or ends, but was a complement to Christianity: Service to the lady was also thought to develop Christian virtues, such as humility, faith, and devotion Perella The exemplum of the fusion of human romantic and divine love, however, would be Dante.

According to twentieth century English Christian writer and poet Charles Williams, there is a theological tradition of romantic love, or a romantic theology, present in poets and artists, of which Dante is the greatest figure Williams, Dante ; Williams Outlines 7. For Williams this is particularly acute in romantic experience, including sexual love, particularly in marriage Williams, Outlines The experience of this love-feeling has a sacred aura to it that leads to God.

There is something about the encounter with the human beloved that facilitates not only divine encounter, transcendence and grace, but also spiritual growth, devotion, and holiness. The heart is often so shaken by the mere contemplation of the beloved that it is not conscious of anything beyond its own delight. The whole person of the lover is possessed by a new state of consciousness; love is born in him…. But in this state of love he sees and contemplates the beloved as the perfection of living things: She appears to him, as it were, archetypal, the alpha and omega of creation…the first-created of God.

Moreover, this vision has the capacity to see the human transformed to the divine, while remaining as it is. Not certainly of herself is she anything but as being glorious in the delight taken in her by the Divine Presence that accompanies her, and yet is born of her; which created her and is helpless as a child in her power. However in all other ways she may be full of error or deliberate evil, in the eyes of the lover, were it but for a moment, she recovers her glory, which is the glory that Love had with the Father before the world was.

Just as in the Eucharist the material bread and wine come to bear the flesh and blood of Christ, so the beloved through love becomes a theophany or window to the divine, remaining what she is yet also being more than this. She becomes sanctified and becomes the locus of sanctification through an experience of divine beauty. He finally explains this romantic theology:. This experience does at once, as it were, establish itself as the centre of life.

Other activities are judged and ordered in relation to it; they take on a dignity [End Page 4] and seem to be worthwhile because of some dignity and worth which appears to be inherent in life itself—life being the medium by which love is manifested. A lover will regard his own body and its functions as beautiful and hallowed by contact with hers…. His intellectual powers will be renewed and quickened in the same way. And—if Romantic Theology is correct—his soul itself will enter upon a new state, becoming conscious of that grace of God which is otherwise, for so many, difficult to appreciate.

As in the Incarnation or God coming to the world and flesh through Christ, so these everyday experiences of love and marriage are the very site through which life can be experienced as having a deeper divine reality; indeed, without the Incarnation or these divine hierophanies in the everyday, we would not really understand the divine at all. There is a religious spirit in love, to which poets, especially Dante, have born witness Williams, Outlines In The Comedy , she leads him not only to divine contemplation, but also to redemption and salvation because she inspires holiness and virtue within him, an in-Godding or taking of the self into God Williams, Dante If we neglect the spiritual meaning of these experiences, then according to him, we neglect a way of sanctity Williams, Dante Furthermore, since according to Christian tradition marriage is a sacrament of the church, it bears the possibility of bestowing grace, and of experiencing other sacraments, including the Eucharist Williams, Outlines However, while they experience this transcendence and grace, the experience also remains human and immanent.

It is not an allegory, or merely symbolic; as Beatrice, it remains what it is, two human beings living together, as well as something more Williams, Dante Being in Love from Jane Austen to D. For Polhemus the novel itself is a trajectory of the erotic and erotic faith 3. Whether it be the chastening and spiritualization of the erotic in Jane Austen ch. We may ask at this point what all this has to do with romantic film. I draw upon these authors and traditions simply to assert that there also has existed a Christian tradition from Dante onwards that did not see human romantic love and divine love as contradictory, but as part of the same continuum, or that may have fused the two experiences.

It not only used erotic imagery and love sentiments to describe divine encounters, but saw in the human experience of romantic love a shadow of the divine and a means of grace. This tradition, instead of disavowing passion, eroticism, and devotion or sublimating it to divine being, exalts this passion and eroticism within human relationships as a means to the divine; in other words, eros is also a part of the Christian way to salvation Williams, Dante Indeed, as theologian Richard Niebuhr has explained in his work Christ and Culture , within Christian history and tradition, there have been positive understandings of the relationship between Christ and human culture and society.

In these views, human culture has its positive value, worth and goodness, where one sees within the human something of the divine, and where the human can become a bearer of divine meaning and significance. This deeper meaning to romantic love still exists as a remnant and possibility in modern representations, including in romantic film. Though we exist in a secular or post-secular era, Christianity has left its legacy on culture and in art and literature. This deeper religious meaning in romantic literature is one legacy that can be observed in romantic film as well.

Moreover, I think this becomes even more relevant in our Western postmodern era, where a focus on and an exaltation of everyday life and experience, sometimes to a sacred level, becomes possible. Because of this courtly love tradition and its connection with Christian discourse, and this theology of romantic love that also runs through it, romantic love in our postmodern era, particularly in film, has become a bearer onto which religious discourse has been displaced. In reverse of the original situation, human, secular language and sentiment now may be used to describe religious experience and to engage in religious discourse.

Theological explorations of religion and film often treat issues such as theodicy, suffering, sin, evil, the demonic, or alienation; or they often explore themes of larger relevance such as oppression, injustice, war, violence, and gender.

Often scholars hold the view that theologically relevant films must be those that unsettle us from complacency and force us to confront the complexities, i. Yet, as is the case with the courtly love tradition, Christian mystical discourse, and romantic theology, there is also another side to Christian theology, one that explores goodness and beauty, and sees in the humanly good and beautiful an expression of the divine in the human.

Christian theological aesthetics delves more into this theme. It concerns itself with the relationship of God with art and beauty, and with God as perceived and experienced through beauty and art. Beauty points to fact that being is in essence joyous Viladesau To believe in any finite beauty is to believe in the reality of the Absolute, or God; otherwise, joy becomes groundless and illusory Viladesau Indeed we must surround ourselves with beauty because beauty brings out that the best in life really possible Chittister Likewise, this beauty is more than just pleasant.

What is beautiful is also true, is also good. Furthermore, since nothing exists that we have not been freely and lovingly given, in all creation is a motive for gratitude Navone Without this passion and intimacy, love, human and divine, becomes cold and sterile McFague Christian theological aesthetics often link art as the locus for experiencing this divine glory and beauty, and also link human beauty and pleasure in the work of art [End Page 7] with the divine. Works of art becomes sites for theophanies, where the divine manifests itself; the art form thus remains itself yet becomes more than itself Bird 3.

The real and original experience of beauty and joy in the work of art becomes analogous to a higher and more comprehensive experience of divine beauty and joy Rahner Film can also be a very good medium for manifesting the divine. Experiencing pleasure in film images can open the viewer up to experiences of the beautiful, which lead to experiences of the good and true Verbeek Moreover, film is a total experience, operating on multiple levels.

It works on us on a semi-conscious level that viscerally affects us as an embodied experience Plate ; Marsh Emotion, sentiment and mood color our experience of film Tan and Frijda, ; Marsh ; G. It affects us through images which cause emotional reflection T. It is a more totalizing experience than other forms of art T. Films also make us see in new ways through the more careful lens of the film experience T. Martin ; Plate 57 , which may allow us to see the holy, or divine goodness present within them Johnston, Reel n. Popular culture can be important theologically because it shows us how people may be experiencing the holy in everyday life.

In an era of postmodernity or post-post , popular culture in embodied life is the medium with which most people relate, and the site in which groups such as Generation X are having religious experiences Lynch, After , It can allow the divine presence through images which a postmodern audience may perceive and understand as potentially sacred. Popular films are an extension of the theological value of popular culture. The love of a divine Other may be held to manifest and represent itself through love of a human other.

Moreover, discourse on love in film sometimes may stand in for discourse on religion. This shows us that the love story in postmodernity can sometimes bear the remnants of the former Christian story about grace and redemption. According to early Christian scholars, the kiss did hold meaning in Greco-Roman society. Often erotic and shared privately within the family, public kissing for reasons of friendship and reconciliation was also practiced Klassen ; Penn 6, 10; Phillips But with early Christianity the kiss took on new meaning and importance, being not only practiced but discussed in the writings of Church Fathers such as Tertullian, Clement, Chrysostom, Ambrose, and Augustine Penn, passim.

From New Testament origins in St. Begun as a greeting among Christian brethren at church, by the fourth century it also found its way into the Eucharist and into Christian baptism Perella ; Phillips 7, , It could thus be viewed as a means of the infusion of grace Perella 43; Phillips The kiss was also known as the kiss of peace, or pax, and thus was viewed as a form of communion, reconciliation, and forgiveness; the kiss of peace established concord and unity Klassen ; Penn Moreover, from Greco-Roman times the kiss was thought to contain a magical-mystical meaning, thought of as a means of spiritual exchange; in Christianity it signified an exchange of souls Penn 20, 37, ; Perella 5, ; Phillips 5.

The kiss must also arise from the heart in true affection; if it did not, then it could become the Judas kiss of betrayal, instead of the kiss of peace Penn 65, ; Perella In the Christian mystical tradition and in courtly love and romantic literature, the kiss conceit also continues. The erotic kiss could symbolize the kiss of God to the human, or the embrace of the soul with God Perella The kiss could also represent the completion of mystical experience, or illumination and an infusion of grace Perella , In medieval courtly love literature, while the kiss becomes profane, and perhaps [End Page 9] more erotic, it still appears, partially in the idea of a union of hearts or souls, and exchange of spirits Perella, , The kiss could also exemplify the telos of the devotion, and could signify a bestowal of grace or benediction, this time by the lady Perella , This idea of an exchange of hearts or souls in the kiss, and the kiss as an ecstatic moment, continues into love poetry during the Renaissance and Baroque periods Perella , , The kiss is central to the Matrix films.

This kiss theme is more than just romantic; it is salvific, having a resurrecting power. In the first movie of the trilogy, when it appears as if agent Smith has killed Neo, Trinity tells Neo:. The oracle told me that I would fall in love and that that man, the man that I loved, would be the one. Then Trinity gives him a kiss, and his heart revives. Getting up again, Neo suddenly is able to fight the agents without effort. He is able to defeat the agent by going into his body and causing the agent to implode. It is love that gives Neo the power to be the One, love as expressed through the kiss.

This kiss thus is more than just a kiss; it confers a supernatural power. But the kiss is pivotal as the symbol through which this resurrecting power of love occurs. The kiss is thus salvific, and transforms Neo into the One. This romantic love through the kiss develops further in the next film, The Matrix Reloaded. It shows eros as a necessary aspect of human and divine love McFague , ; Greeley This passion, since it is expressed by Neo the Savior, is not just a human passion but perhaps also a divine one Balthasar He explains his philosophy of life thus:.

Causality—there is no escape from it. We are forever slaves to it. Our only hope, our only peace is to understand it, to understand the why… why is the only real source of power. Without it you are powerless and this is how you come to me…another link in the chain. What the Merovingian represents is a mechanistic universe of necessity, of rational and logical calculation, control, and manipulation. It is not only without eros, but without joy, [End Page 10] beauty, or love, and thus without goodness or truth.

Neo, contrariwise, acts out of love and passion, here exemplified by his love for Trinity, which is what makes him a savior. You love her [Trinity]; she loves you.

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A long time ago I knew what that felt like. I want to remember it, I want to sample it. Neo then enters the Matrix and meets the architect. I love you too damn much.

for the sake of allah anne stephens cuddly bedtime story collection Manual

The architect, similar to the Merovingian, is interested in logic and reason, control and balance, not in love, joy or desire. What is missing in this technological means-end world is beauty and joy; here we value efficiency instead Chittister Moreover, this love is once again salvific: In the last film of the trilogy, The Matrix Revolutions , the kiss does not play as central a role, but we do find a religious discourse taking place in the name of romantic love, where this love bestows a semi-sacredness to everyday life and the human sphere, bestowing Christian religious virtues.

Rama-Kandra, whom Neo meets in the nether-subway world at the beginning of the film, explains why he is trying to save his daughter Sati:. I love my daughter very much. I find her to be the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. But where we are from that is not enough. Every program that is created must have a purpose. If it does not, it is deleted. Neo remarks that he has never heard a program speak of love, and thinks of it as a human emotion.

It is a word. What matters is the connection the word implies. I see that you are in love. Can you tell me what you would give to hold on to that connection? What is interesting here is the ability to appreciate everyday life and its beauty and goodness, here the beauty of a child and family, in an almost sacrosanct way which almost seems to appreciate them as gifts of grace.

This also runs very counter to the technological, mechanical world of the Matrix. Likewise, when Trinity is dying, she is grateful for the love Neo and she shared, without regret and fear. As she is dying, Trinity explains how much she loved him, and says:. How grateful I was for every moment I was with you, but by the time I knew how to say what I wanted to it was too late, but you brought me back, you gave me my wish, one more chance to say what I really wanted to say.

She asks Neo to kiss her one last time, and dies. Gratitude, often an integral part of divine grace, helps Trinity see the nature of life in an almost sacramental way, infused with divine goodness. Thus, in the Matrix trilogy we can see a romantic love discourse that bears the remnants of a religious discourse, of salvation, of grace, of beauty, goodness, and of gratitude.

Moreover, this discourse becomes heightened in postmodernity. There are certainly religious themes present in the Matrix, including Christian ideas, concepts, and symbols, and these link together with the love story in a meaningful way. We see this most clearly through the motif of the kiss. At first glance, the Shrek quadrilogy does not seem to merit theological relevance.

Yet these animated tales do play with love, romance and the kiss in such a way that also evidences remnants of religious discourse and experience within the romantic love story. Fiona is lifted up into the air amid light and sparks and comes down again in ogre form. Of course, this tale cleverly plays upon the fairy-tale ideal of romantic love.

The kiss takes place in a church, in front of a clergymen, and the sparks and lifting in the air show that there is something magical, supernatural to it. Being in a church, the kiss takes [End Page 12] place as the consummation of the marriage ceremony, which can be taken as sacramental. Yet, Fiona and Shrek remain the same; what this signifies is that the grace and blessedness bestowed on them, while transfigurative, is also something that can be found within their human lives and human experience of marriage. In Shrek the music often helps to convey the mood and experience of falling in love.

We need only to think of Williams and Dante and their romantic theology to see how a vision of the beloved transforms experience and makes ready an acceptation of the good. These themes, and the kiss motif, continue through the next three Shrek films. When Shrek finds Fiona and offers her his new and improved human form if they kiss before midnight, Fiona prefers the old Shrek.

Going back to the Christian theology of the kiss, we should remember that a kiss not from the heart, not with true affection, and not full of faith cannot have effect, cannot bestow the holy spirit or confer unity and peace, cannot knit the souls of the kissers; it becomes a Judas kiss instead. Shrek 2 continues a postmodern religious discourse through this legacy of a Christian theological remnant and hyper-meaning within this romantic love tradition. The theological significance that this could bear is akin to grace and mystical discourse. Mystics cannot make a divine encounter happen, cannot transform themselves into divine beings or experience divine union.

The same holds true with grace; its infusion is something God bestows, not something we can attain by our effort. Romantic love often works in the same way in film; it is something that happens and that we cannot control, and which transforms us unexpectedly. He cannot make Fiona love him or manipulate the circumstances of love and happiness through his own efforts.

Here one cannot make love happen, just as one cannot make beauty, goodness, or truth happen. The religious discourse through the romantic love story also continues in the third film, Shrek the Third. A disgruntled Prince Charming gathers an army of disgruntled fairy-tale villains who desire their own happily-ever-afters, and again unsuccessfully try to make them happen. Yet here a young King Arthur convinces these fairy-tale villains to repent and reform, while Shrek tells Charming to seek his own happily ever after, after which Charming is killed by a tower prop.

The thing that matters most is what you think of yourself. The villains lay down their weapons and ponder other professions, such as growing daisies or opening spas. In other words, they have seen the error of their ways, have repented, and are redeemed and reformed of their wickedness. Bringing back Williams and his romantic theology again, it helps us link the good, or even wondrous, in human experience with a divine goodness. It is likewise salvific or redemptive; it constantly rescues Fiona and Shrek from evils and tribulations, and is sealed by the kiss Williams, Outlines The last film, Shrek Forever After , ties everything together.

Though Shrek is happily married with ogre triplets, he finds this life dull and monotonous. Because he cannot be grateful for his life, he nearly loses everything. Without his love story with Fiona, he ends up in a dystopia. Though in this dystopia Fiona has no interest in love and dislikes Shrek, Shrek slowly restores her faith and makes her fall in love with him again.

What stands out to me in this last movie as regards romantic discourse as a bearer of theological meaning and religious experience is the romantic theology of love, marriage and family as sacramental, holy experiences that can lead to redemption. Shrek lives in a state of ingratitude at the beginning of the film. He has forgotten to see his life as a gift of grace. After he has lost it all, Shrek realizes this. You gave me a home and a family. I got the chance to fall in love with you all over again. Fiona is cynical, faithless, and loveless. After Shrek kisses her and nothing happens, Shrek remarks:.

And how would you know? Did you live all alone in a miserable tower? Did you cry yourself to sleep every night waiting for a true love that never came? She has lost faith not just in love, but in the good and beautiful in life, especially as freely given gifts. Everything now depends on her own human effort and will against a cruel world. That is why the kiss did not work; she no longer believes, or loves.

Yet even here, there is still a ray of hope. I am not believing what I have just witnessed. Back there—you and Fiona, there was a spark. A spark inside her heart I thought was long extinguished. It was as if for one moment Fiona had actually found her true love.

It is thus up to Shrek to restore her belief and faith in love through love. Through the sacrifices Shrek makes to save Fiona, Fiona comes to believe in Shrek and the power of love again: When Shrek apologizes for not having been there for her, Fiona says that it does not matter, that he is here now. Her life and her past are beginning to be redeemed through this experience of love, and her faith and hope are renewed.

Without that love, in a world of cynicism, faithlessness, and disbelief, everything is a dystopia. With the grace and beauty of love, it is beautiful and joyous again, showing how love repeatedly renews the world Williams, Outlines In the last movie, we see clearly the analogous relation of romantic love and religious faith, and how this romantic love narrative and discourse could stand in for that of religious faith, showing once again the transposition of Christian theological themes into romantic discourse. We can read the love story again as more than just a romantic love story, as that through which in postmodernity, due to the historical relation of romantic and Christian discourse, discourse on religion, God, and faith take place, albeit in a secularized, human form.

In postmodernity the genre of romantic comedy also becomes a site in which religious discourse takes place, where discourse about love can be read as discourse about religion. What these romantic comedies show even more clearly than the above films is how the love story in film acts as a foil to the modern secular story of hedonism, value-neutrality, scientific rationality, skepticism, cynicism, and disbelief.

Romantic love acts as a site which challenges this secular viewpoint by allowing for an experience of love which contains the possibility of a deeper significance as a divine, religious experience. To me marriage is an archaic and oppressive institution that should have been abolished years ago. Yeah, it makes you feel all warm and relevant but in the end love leaves you weak, dependent, and fat.

I wish I could believe in all this crap. I also wish I could believe in the Easter Bunny…. I am condemned to see the world as it really is, and love, love is a myth. We could substitute religion, faith, or God very easily here for the word love, and probably marriage, and we would probably recognize this speech as the modern, secular, skeptical view of religion. His moral reformation begins when his deceased lecherous uncle Wayne visits him, warning him to repent of his ways.

The connection signifies religious and moral meaning, requiring the repentance and reformation of Connor. Connor does see the error of his ways, and begins a new life, a life of committed love. He meets Erica Barry, the divorced mother of his girlfriend, and while he is convalescing in her home from a heart attack, they develop a special romantic relationship which turns into love. When they first make love, it is as if they have both experienced something new and wondrous in their lives, an openness and vulnerability but also passion and elation.

That was the first night either of them had ever slept eight hours. We can chalk it up to just sexual desire, but something happens that also transforms their lives. She appears happier than ever, and explains to her daughter it was because she let love in, even if it did not work out. Meanwhile Harry attempts to go back to his former playboy life, but to no avail. He is unhappy, and every time he sees Erica he has an anxiety attack which he fears is another heart attack.

Realizing he needs to change, he goes back, tries to find every woman he has ever wronged, and makes amends. He looks for Erica in Paris, but finds her with another man. Yet she returns to him. Whether realized before or not, it brought something missing from their lives into it, love, passion, or wonder, that changed and transformed them. They had to change their lives for the better: The kiss and romantic love in film can operate religiously and theologically.

They have the capacity not only to bear a theological significance, but to offer an opportunity for divine encounter and transformation, as well as containing the possibility of a religious discourse. This is due to the origins of medieval courtly love and its relationship with Christian theological discourse, where medieval courtly love borrowed the sentiments and language of Christian discourse, particularly mystical discourse.

Moreover, something of the humanly erotic also remained within sublimated mystical discourse, fusing the two experiences and making it more difficult to distinguish one from the other. This paved the way for romantic love, the descendent of courtly love, to contain the possibility of this deeper theological meaning and religious experience within it. In postmodernity, where God is dead, and where transcendence has been displaced onto immanence and the divine onto the human, this dormant religious and theological possibility of romantic love in culture and art can sometimes be activated, and can become pregnant with meaning.

This holds particularly true in film. Moreover, in postmodernity romantic love in films can sometimes stand in for and represent religious experiences of God or for religious discourse. Therefore, I contend that romantic love in film can be one style, form and representation through which religious experience and reflection are taking place in postmodernity.

It thus shows the religious and theological possibilities of popular culture and popular cultural manifestations. Finally, I hope looking at romantic love in film in this light, in relation to theological aesthetics, contributes to opening up and freeing theology and film studies, which seldom treats the theme of romantic love as theologically or religiously pertinent. Theology and film studies should welcome more often these positive engagements with film and religious studies and popular culture. To quote the Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf:.

I see happiness as a right. I think that it is a human right to be joyful. The person who makes a dark, realistic film in India is wasting his time…. They must be allowed to have some pleasure in life. The person who has had to sell his body for a morsel of food — you want to make a film for him about social justice?

What is he supposed to do after seeing that film? Like Makhbalhaf, we can aim to take seriously those filmmakers who by treating romantic love desire to bring a little more happiness and joy to life and to the world, and consider such a goal a legitimate [End Page 18] enterprise. We can also appreciate films and scholarly work that reveal and point us toward this joyous side to life, and realize their value.

I close with a discussion of the ending of Cinema Paradiso. But it signifies something else as well: I hope this kiss can begin to be understood as that which sometimes graces life, not just in romantic love, but in all our everyday moments, and which may be read and understood as a symbol of human or divine goodness, not to mention the hope, faith and belief in the good, the beautiful and the true, and perhaps the happily ever after of romantic love or Christian redemption. Let us hope that we, unlike the priest, do not censor this out of film or religion, its study, and certainly not out of life.

There existed also a system of rules and observances which must govern this service. A theophany is the same idea only with the eruption of God or the divine into the mundane. For more information see Eliade, Sacred. The revelation can also often manifest itself through a work of art, as an encounter; it entails the revelation through the work of art to a passive subjectivity.

Most of the writings of Marion are a propos to this phenomenon, but in particular Being Given may be of use in explaining this idea. Miramax US , Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson. Chris Miller and Raman Hui. The Da Vinci Code. The Last Temptation of Christ. Willem Dafoe, Barbara Hershey. Larry and Andy Wachowski. Music From the Original Motion Picture. Art, Creativity, and the Sacred. Balthasar, Hans Urs von. Joseph Fessio and John Riches. Excerpt in Thiessen In the Name of Love: Romantic Ideology and its Victims.

Oxford University Press, May and Michael Bird. University of Tennessee Press, The Origin and Meaning of Courtly Love. Manchester University Press, Clive Marsh and Gaye Ortiz. Cinema, Religion, and the Romantic Legacy.

Brief Explanation

Religious Themes in Contemporary Cinema. New Focus for an Emerging Discipline. Kindle for PC Version. Film Theory as a Window into a Visual Faith. Detweiler, Craig, and Barry Taylor. A Matrix of Meanings: Finding God in Popular Culture. Excerpt in Apostolos-Capadona Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Excerpt in Apostolos-Cappadona Free and Faithful in Christ.

Theology and Film in Dialogue. An Example of Social Boundary Lines. Myths, Morals, and Rituals.

New York University Press, Darton, Longman, and Todd, Conversation with Mohsen Malkhmalbaf. Iranian Cinema Past, Present, and Future. Excerpt in The Religion and Film Reader. Jolyon Mitchell and S. Toward a Phenomenology of Givenness. Stanford University Press, Images and the Imageless: A Study in Religious Consciousness and Film. Associated University Presses, Toward a Theology of Beauty. The Liturgical Press, Ritual and Community in the Late Ancient Church.

University of Pennsylvania Press, The Kiss Sacred and Profane: Cinema and the Recreation of the World. University of Chicago Press, Film, Cognition, and Emotion. Carl Plantinga and Greg M. Johns Hopkins University Press, Emotion, Cognition, and the Film Score. Music and Meaning Making in Film. Thiessen, Gesa Elsbeth, ed. Toward a Theology of Film Aesthetics. Sheed and Ward, Outlines of Romantic Theology. Over the past few decades, there has been a growing critical mass of scholarly interest in the study of popular romance as a literary form in its own right.

Although Goldman does mention primary sources, her main focus is on secondary materials, i. Goldman also identified a list of 37 core secondary sources for popular romance scholarship Secondary materials are definitely important, but the systematic collection of primary sources, the actual popular romance novels and short stories themselves, is vital. Academic libraries have long had an uneven record of collecting so-called popular contemporary literature. Although historical collections of items such as dime novels are not uncommon, popular contemporary literature is often not collected until it is, so to speak, no longer contemporary.

Three recent trends in university and college libraries have prompted academic libraries to rethink their ideas about popular literature collections…. Trend towards user-focused libraries, revitalization of the library as place, and promotion of literacy and lifelong reading These are all worthy goals and purposes, but they do not necessarily align with the systematic collection and preservation of primary source materials.

Leisure reading collections are often leased from companies such as McNaughton. Moreover, materials that might work best for a leisure reading collection and attract student attention may not necessarily be those desired by future researchers. As more colleges and universities begin to offer popular literature courses, there are indications that some academic libraries are starting to change or adapt their practices.

In a exploratory study, Justine Alsop found that a majority of her literature librarian survey respondents did collect some popular contemporary literature. Lack of space and money are very real issues for many academic libraries, especially given the vast amount of popular fiction that is published. According to the Romance Writers of America, the romance genre alone generates 1. In a book chapter, Charles W. Selection criteria are seldom based on the quality of the literature, so that statistical methods can be used.

Wanting a sample of romances, for example, which the industry produces at the rate of about four a day, one might decide to buy those published on the first day of every month. They are alike, after all or rather, their differences are statistical Leaving aside the question of whether romance novels really are all alike, buying materials in this fashion, while it might result in good representation of the romance genre as a whole, would make it very difficult for researchers to study individual authors or even subgenres such as paranormal romance since there would be little continuity aside from date of publication.

However, leaving popular romance collecting to public libraries is not necessarily the best alternative. Public libraries have very different missions than do academic libraries. Aside from public library systems that include research branches such as the New [End Page 3] York Public Library, most public libraries do not collect for the long term needs of researchers and students, but instead, focus on the present reading interests of the populations that they serve. Collection development policies of public libraries should be guided by local reading tastes that may favor certain authors and sub-genres versus others.

Many standard library review sources, such as Library Journal , only publish popular romance on a quarterly basis. In , the American Library Association publication Reference and User Services did publish an article on collecting romance genre fiction in public libraries, but it only listed five titles per romance sub-genre Wyatt et al.

In public libraries, as titles become less popular or simply wear out, they are often withdrawn in order to make room for newer titles. Again, the role of most public libraries is not to preserve items, but rather, focus on current patron needs. The expectation that public libraries will have research-worthy collections of popular romance novels just is not realistic in these days of shrinking budgets, public demand, and a now longstanding collection development philosophy Baltimore County Public Library. There are a few academic libraries that do systematically collect popular romance materials, mostly through their special collections.

A prime example is the Browne Popular Culture Library at Bowling Green State University, which currently holds over 10, volumes of category romance series. Another is the University of Melbourne Library in Australia, which began collecting romance novels as early as , with an emphasis on authors from Australia and New Zealand. One of the arguments used for establishing the collection at the University of Melbourne Library was that other Australian libraries were already collecting other genres of popular fiction Flesch Other schools, such as the University of Wisconsin, have focused on specific sub-genres such as nurse romances.

These collections have an immense value in regards to long-term preservation of these materials. While locating these materials in Special Collections may be desirable from a preservation standpoint especially in the case of mass market paperbacks , it does limit student and researcher access. Circulating collections provide greater physical access for faculty and students as well as researchers and students at other institutions who have Interlibrary Loan access.

The authors of this article would argue that there is value in systematically collecting popular romance fiction for circulating academic library collections. As no established collection development model exists specifically for this type of collection, the authors created a strategy using other genre collections such as science fiction as a model, and their skills as established liaison librarians in crafting the collection.

A Research Guide , which focused on primary and secondary sources for popular romance writers was a unique combination that allowed this collection to be created in a relatively short time. In this article, the authors will describe how they established a popular romance collection at George Mason University Libraries, as well as discuss various issues that were encountered. George Mason University is a highly diverse, state-funded, growing institution, and has recently become one of the largest universities in the state of Virginia.

The University Libraries encompass four libraries, in addition to a separately managed Law Library. Two of the libraries are on the large Fairfax Campus while the other two libraries serve the research and service needs of our distributed campuses. The Fenwick Library is the largest library and is generally considered the main research library of the University. The majority of the 1. Like many academic libraries, the University Libraries had sporadically collected romance novels, mostly through a leased McNaughton collection, gifts, and faculty requests.

It had also collected secondary sources to support the courses in the English Department and other programs, and had 78 per cent of the core popular romance scholarship titles identified by Goldman Goldman Sheehan and Stevens decided to begin systematically collecting popular romance novels at George Mason University in response to several campus developments. The first was an English department class: Matthews created the course partly in response to the degree and depth of engagement that she observed on web-based forums devoted to reader discussion of popular romance novels Ramage.


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First offered in , it was successful enough to be offered again in , with 38 students registered George Mason University. Given that the Library of Congress is ready to highlight popular romance novels, academic libraries now have an opportunity to acquire resources that may have been previously considered fringe or not appropriate for scholarly study.

After learning about the Popular Romance Project, Sheehan contacted the coordinators and arranged to become a blogger for the site. One of the faculty members involved with the Popular Romance Project turned out to be Jessica Matthews. Over the summer of , Sheehan met with Professor Matthews to discuss ways the University Libraries could support her research and teaching and whether there were specific popular romance titles that the University Libraries should acquire.

As a result Sheehan asked Stevens to order several titles by Diana Gabaldon, an author Matthews studies. Based on these developments, Sheehan and Stevens began discussing how they might best support faculty and students by acquiring a representative sample of additional popular romance titles, with the knowledge that this could never be a truly comprehensive collection.

Because of the way that Library of Congress Classification the schema used by most academic libraries treats literary materials, both the primary and secondary sources for a given author i. The Library of Congress classification does have a specific subject heading, Love Stories, for any titles that involve romantic themes or stories, but that subject heading does not determine the shelving position — it facilitates finding the information in the catalog.

Sheehan and Stevens also decided that the materials should be accessible via Interlibrary Loan in order to facilitate access to students and researchers at other institutions. Libraries can choose to limit Interlibrary Loan access to materials in order to prevent loss; few if any Special Collection materials tend to be accessible via Interlibrary Loan. After Sheehan and Stevens had a preliminary discussion with the Head of Collection Development, Sheehan wrote and submitted a formal proposal see Appendix 1.

This proposal included the following elements:. Although [End Page 6] Stevens, as the English librarian, would have signing authority after the first year, selections would continue to be made by both Sheehan and Stevens. This way, the continued growth of the collection would not be dependent on one librarian. Once the proposal was approved by the University Libraries administration and Sheehan and Stevens were given a budget, they began the selection process. As with literature as a whole, the question of canon is a vexed one for popular romance. Judging the quality of writing or story can be very subjective.

By using their established knowledge of collection development skills, they anticipated creating a collection that, while not answering the question of canon, will contribute to the ongoing discussion. Sheehan and Stevens also knew this was a long term project, and that purchasing the foundation or historical collection would take many years to accomplish.

Sheehan and Stevens were fortunate, however, to have something of a head start. A Research Guide had itself involved selecting a group of authors to include, she had already done quite a bit of research in the area. Updating the resources was easily accomplished and provided the initial list of authors and in many cases identified works that would help demonstrate the variety and changes found in popular romance novels.

These are the authors that helped define the genre for the last 30 years. In November , the website All About Romance released an updated Top Romances Poll which also helped identify popular titles and specific authors to purchase Top Romances. A number of authors overlapped on all the collecting criteria, which suggested places to start.

Sheehan and Stevens also decided to focus the collection on individual authors rather than publisher series i. As with almost all other collection development done by academic librarians, reviews from trusted sources played a large role in the decision making process of what to buy. Additionally, online resources such as the well regarded Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, Read-A-Romance Month, and the long running All About Romance websites provide non-traditional for the academic librarian resources for identifying upcoming authors and reviews for titles.

Diversity of characters is an ongoing concern in what has historically been the white, heteronormative nature of much of popular romance genre. Recently, there have been several efforts, such as the Love in the Margins and the Queer Romance Month websites, that strive to publicize diverse authors and works.

As they move forward with the collection, Sheehan and Stevens will continue to monitor the changing nature of the romance genre, including new sub-genres, and will adapt the collection appropriately. Faculty and students research interests at Mason will also help in crafting the collection based on what diverse authors are being studied. Self Publishing; 1 edition 7 June Sold by: Customer reviews There are no customer reviews yet. Share your thoughts with other customers.

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