Simmel, the Emotions and the Tragic Nature of the Love Bond

Bibliographic Data

ID21758951
AuthorsMassimo Cerulo (0000-0002-1524-2024, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume25
Issue2
Pages55-83
Publication date2021-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSimmel Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1616-2552 • E-ISSN: 2512-1022
PublisherConsortium Erudit (PUBLISHER • CA)
DOI10.7202/1088064ar
OpenAlexW4293126607
LanguageEN
References cited17

The aim of this essay is to analyze the sociological study of emotions produced by Georg Simmel, with specific attention to the concept of love. The article is structured as follows: in the first part, what could be defined as ‘Simmel's sociology of emotions’ is presented through a descriptive and interpretative analysis of the constructed social theory; in the second part, the focus shifts to love as emotion, emphasizing its tragic character within the construction and destruction of the social bond. Finally, in the third part, a comparison with the sociological analysis of love produced by two contemporary researchers such as Eva Illouz – love as a result of the dynamics conveyed by ‘emotional capitalism’ – and Danilo Martuccelli – love as an ‘emotional imperative’ of contemporary daily life - will be produced. The common thread of the entire essay is exactly the tragic character of the emotion of love, which allows both the construction and the destruction of the social bond, through an ambivalent interactional game that seems to have no end

Aesthetics · Ambivalence · Bond · Epistemology · Psychoanalysis · Social science · Sociological theory · Sociology · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Sociology and Norbert Elias · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory

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