Kärlekens temporalitet : En studie om definitionen av kärlek i kärleksromaner över tid

Title: The temporality of love – A study about the definition of love over time in love novels Subject: Sociology Authors: Penny Salomonsson The purpose of this study is to form an understanding regarding what love is in love novels from different periods, from the beginning of 1800s to the present, 2020. Previous studies have shown that the definition of love has gone from being about the couple to being about the individual. What love is has therefore become uncertain, which has led to discussion. The study of this topic is therefore of great relevance because it can show what love has been and what it is or at least what we want it to be, and that can say something about our society. This study is based on a qualitative research method. The method is conceptual history – the study of concepts which is an approach in text analysis. Ten love novels were included in the study, some of them are classic love novels because it probably gave a more credible picture of what love was during the chosen time periods. The theoretical perspective that the collected data is analysed through is Anthony Giddens theories about passionate love, romantic love and the pure relationship. Eva Illouz analytical tool “the great transformation of love” are also used. The result of this study shows that all periods during the chosen time period defines love based on romantic love in some sense. Romantic love therefore does not dominate the definition of love of all the different time periods, however, it does exist. Moreover, the study result also shows that characteristics is important for the definition of love and that reflection and development also has important place in the definition of love