O obecności ideału romantyczności we współczesnych związkach miłosnych

Abstrakt

Love and models of loving relationships constitute an important field of analysis for the contemporary sociology of individuals. Models of loving also illustrate the wide changes that have taken place in the culture of Western individualism and in the predominant value system. Some critics of this culture, like Zygmunt Bauman or Ulrich Beck, argue that romantic love has become outdated and has been replaced by relationships treated instrumentally by lovers, and managed with the rules which resemble the logic of the market. This paper contains a comparison of the romantic love code and Giddens’ confluent love code. By demonstrating the similarities and differences between them, the author answers the question about the influence of the romantic ideal on the contemporary model of love and relationships. She argues that the confluent love code includes many romantic elements, adapted to the cultural reality of the new middle class. Other elements, incompatible with values of this culture, are subjected to processes of commodification and used by consumers’ market.