Paper short abstract:

The paper will deal with the way that romantic love works in a Bosnian epic of The Wedding of Meho Smailagic by A. Medjedovic and Erec et Enide, a Xll century romance by Chretien de Troyes. It will explore the function of romantic encounter, consistent with respective genres.

Paper long abstract:

The paper deals with the way that romantic love comes about, why it originates and what forms it takes on. It explores two different genres, one Bosnian epic by Avdo Medjedovic, taken down in 1934 by Milman Parry, and the other, being a romance, Erec et Enide written in ca 1170 by Chretien de Troyes. It will be about the origin of romantic love, the exploration about the union of two wonderful beings under the motif of falcon and fairy and their coming together as two opposing forces. The origin is in mythems, as union of natural forces and oral literature takes on the form of an epic and is in conformity with the genre telling a tale of extraordinary heroes. The voice all-important in the epic. the paper explores the romantic love and how it functions in a highly traditional heroic society with its eye on the past(Bakhtine). The comparison with the romance reveals the process of rising individuality with the introduction of sentiments, showing fragmentary present, however still aristocratic and chivalrous.