Communication of Love

By the end of the twentieth century certain new media had established themselves which have profoundly changed communication among lovers. SMS and email in particular have created new relational forms and forms of intimacy. From declarations of love on talk shows to televised dating games and marriage quiz shows, television offers a panoply of wildly popular theatrical communications of love. Does the neglecting of traditional communication media, such as love letters and the telephone, cause the intermingling of intimacy with the public sphere and hence the abrogation of it? From the disciplines of sociology, history, cultural and media studies and linguistics, this book offers answers to this question by analyzing and discussing new media from various perspectives. Contributions by Eva Illouz, Joachim R. Höflich, Friedrich Krotz, Helga Kotthoff, Karl Lenz, Sabine Maasen, and others.

Eva Lia Wyss is Professor in the Department of German at the University of Koblenz-Landau (Germany). Her research interests include intimate discourse, anthropological media linguistics, and written communication.