Dissecting Love

A podcast about how the 19^th century shaped our understandings of romantic love.

Enjoy this podcast selection from the September 2023 symposium Dissecting Love in the Nineteenth Century and Beyond held at the Medical Museion in Copenhagen. Here leading scholars of love studies gathered in a cross-disciplinary dissection and discussion, contributing to an exploration of how the nineteenth century remains a backdrop to subsequent understandings of romantic love.

From Simon May’s philosophical exploration of how the focus of romantic love has changed in increasingly secular societies to Kirstie Blair’s talk on how women joining the workforce changed dynamics of courtship; to Victoria de Rijke’s interrogation of the feminist history of the genre of fairy tales – the series offers a captivating portrait of love’s various dimensions in-and beyond the nineteenth century.

Episode 5
Michael Hatt, Professor of History of Art at the University of Warwick, speaks on the topic of The Homosexual World of Love and Ritual: Painting Love in Britain, 1860-1920

Episode 4
Kirstie Blair, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Stirling, speaks on the topic of Love, Work and Victorian Industry.

Episode 3
Victoria de Rijke, Professor in Arts & Education at Middlesex University in London, speaks on the topic of The Beast Within: Love and Fairytale Dissection (when the Surgeon is Female).

Episode 2
Ottmar Ette, Chair of Romance Literatures and Cultures as well as Comparative Literature at the University of Potsdam, speaks on the topic of Learning Love: Strong feelings in Nineteenth-Century Literatures of the World.

Episode 1
Simon May, Visiting Professor of Philosophy at King’s College, University of London, speaks on the topic of Love and Philosophy: two ways in which the nineteenth century shaped love in today’s West.