Literarische Aushandlungen von Liebe und Ökonomie. Hrsg. von Paul Keckeis, Gerda E. Moser †, Viktoria Take-Walter. De Gruyter: Berlin, 2020.

The book deals with the eternally gripping constellation of love and economy and collects contributions from the Middle Ages to the present: the focus is on literature of the High and Late Middle Ages; 1800 and 1900 as the end of eras; realism and contemporary literature. Spanning epochs and genres, aesthetic and historical (dis)continuities that are hardly ever targeted by specific research become tangible for the reader.

The contributions to the volume in question date back to an international conference – “Liebe & Ökonomie. Literarische Aushandlungen” –   held in November 2020 at Klagenfurt University. The social relevance of the topic is reflected in recent philosophical as well as cultural and social-economic interest. Starting with Alain Badiou’s “Lob der Liebe” and ending with Slavoj Zizek’s “love is evil”, from the poetry of love to its sociology, the interdependence between love and economy owes its particular topicality not least to the fact that “mutual penetration of capitalism, sexuality, gender relations and technology” within the conditions of our “hyper-networked modernity” (Eva Illouz) is exceptionally evident.

The publication collects contributions dating from the Middle Ages to the present:

Emphasis is on the literature of the High and Late Middle Ages; 1800 and 1900 as the end of eras; realism and contemporary literature. The marked interconnectedness between epochs and genres makes aesthetic and historical (dis)continuities that are hardly ever targeted by specific research become tangible for the reader. Re-readings and close readings of “classic” and contemporary (also popular) texts, the contributions address aesthetic and political potentials unfolding in the fictional configuration of the battleground of love and economy, examine various concepts of love in the course of history or their cultural otherness, put gender-theoretical perspectives in question and ask for text strategies in the conflict area of aesthetic and social order.