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Abstract
The comparative method, in its best sense and usage, while opening broader horizons also can sharpen the focus for the differences, distinctions and individuality of each work considered. This broader horizon allowed me to discover “love” as a linguistic (discursive) construct that is influenced by the corresponding and vastly different social conventions prevalent in the eras when the works of Imru’ al-Qays’ mu‘allaqa , the Castilian epic poem Cantar de mío Cid, and Giacomo da Lentini’s “Madonna, dir vo voglio” were composed and that, in turn, influence the poetic treatment itself. As for the sharpening of focus, the line-by-line close readings allowed me to appreciate the aesthetic beauty and nuances of each language involved as well as the composer’s mastery as displayed in the poem. Carefully avoiding bringing into the analysis biographical information and concentrating mainly on Spivak’s three-tiered notion of language has empowered me to appreciate the ever more prominent role of rhetoricity, evidenced by logic’s disruptions, and textual silences. My comparative analysis utilizes a tool forged out of the synthesis and modifications of Gayatri Spivak’s, Michel Foucault’s, Karl Marx’s, and Jacques Derrida’s concepts. In order to provide reference points from which to analyze how interpersonal love operates (or does not operate) in the selected poetic samples, I draw on Plato’s “Symposium,” Ibn Sīnā’s [special characters omitted] (Risāla fi-l ‘ishq – A Treatise on Love) and Ibn Hazm’s [special characters omitted] (Tawq al-hamāma – The Ring of the Dove). Eric Fromm’s The Art of Loving adds a contemporary look at the theme of love and the individual’s quest to achieve it.
