Advertisement

“There Are as Many Kinds of Love as There Are Hearts”: Age-Gap Relationships in Literature and Cultural Attitudes

Chapter
First Online:

Abstract

Love comes in many forms, as we all know and as the quote from Anna Karenina by Tolstoy holds. Some forms are more frequent than others. As a consequence, less frequent forms may be either tolerated or dismissed as deviant, and therefore socially sanctioned. And different cultures may deal with such forms very differently. In this chapter we look at one form that is less frequent, namely age-gap relations: love relations between either an older man and a considerably younger woman, or vice versa: an older woman and a considerably younger man.

Since it may be expected that nations differ in their attitudes toward such relationships, we investigated two that are (geographically and culturally) wide apart: Brazil and Ukraine.

We offer some examples of empirical methods (Empirical methods aim at knowledge that comes from observation and experience, i.e., evidence gathered through the senses that can be analyzed independently by anyone wishing to re-analyze the data gathered.) with which to investigate short time and longitudinal effects of confronting fictional love stories.

We report a case study, in which we checked how social views on intimate relationships involving a substantial age difference between partners were influenced by reading literary passages from canonical literature, focusing on age-gap relationships. The results cast light on the views on age-gap relations in these respective cultures and thereby highlight their national mentality. Additionally, the findings lend support to the idea that reading literature influences human attitudes.

Keywords

Love Age-gap relationships Empirical research Cultural attitudes Literary reading Effects of reading on perceptions of love 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Brown, R. (1995). Prejudice. Its social psychology. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
  2. Bury, L. (2013, October 8). Reading literary fiction improves empathy, study finds. The Guardian. Accessed May 31, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/oct/08/literary-fiction-improves-empathy-study
  3. Buss, D. M. (2003). The evolution of desire: Strategies of human mating. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
  4. Chesnokova, A., & Mendes, M. (2005). Intimate relationships and age gap: The influence of fiction [in Ukrainian]. Вісник КНЛУ, 8(2), 135–142.Google Scholar
  5. Cialdini, R. B. (2000). Influence: Science and practice. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.Google Scholar
  6. Darnton, R. (1996). The forbidden bestsellers of pre-revolutionary France. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
  7. Deshpande, N. B. (2018, February 24). You won’t believe how romance novels affect the psychology of women. PsycholoGenie. Accessed May 31, 2020, from https://psychologenie.com/how-romance-novels-affect-psychology-of-women
  8. Djikic, M., & Oatley, K. (2014). The art in fiction: From indirect communication to changes of the self. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 8(4), 498–505.  https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037999CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Fisher, H. (1995). The nature and evolution of romantic love. In W. Jankowiak (Ed.), Romantic passion. A universal experience (pp. 103–134). New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
  10. Frankman, H. (2017, October 18). The importance of reading fiction. The Mission. Accessed May 31, 2020, from https://medium.com/the-mission/the-importance-of-reading-fiction-7f57546a229b
  11. Gibbs, R. W. (2013). Walking the walk while thinking about the talk: Embodied interpretation of metaphorical narratives. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 42(4), 363–373.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-012-9222-6PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Gough, H. G. (1980). Manual for the California Psychological Inventory. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.Google Scholar
  13. Hakemulder, F. (2000). The moral laboratory. Experiments examining the effects of reading literature on social perception and moral self-concept. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Hakemulder, F., Kuijpers, M., Tan, E., Balint, K., & Doicaru, M. (Eds.). (2017). Narrative absorption. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
  15. Jankowiak, W., & Fischer, E. (1992). A cross-cultural perspective on romantic love. Ethnology, 31(2), 149–155.  https://doi.org/10.2307/3773618
  16. Karantzas, G. (2018, April 20). Why couples with big age gaps are happier, despite the social disapproval. ABC. Accessed May 31, 2020, from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-20/couple-with-a-larger-age-gap-happier/9680764
  17. Kidd, D. C., & Castano, E. (2013). Reading literary fiction improves Theory of Mind. Science, 342(6156), 377–380.  https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1239918PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. Koopman, E. (2016). Reading suffering. An empirical inquiry into empathic and reflexive responses to literary narratives. Rotterdam: Erasmus University Rotterdam.Google Scholar
  19. Kuijpers, M. (2014). Absorbing stories. The effects of textual devices on absorption and evaluative responses. Ridderkerk: Ridderkerk BV.Google Scholar
  20. Maugham, W. S. (1937/2001). Theatre. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
  21. McCrae, R. R., & Costa Jr., P. T. (1990). Personality in adulthood. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
  22. Menninghaus, W., Wagner, V., Hanich, J., Wassiliwizky, E., Jacobsen, T., & Koelsch, S. (2017). The distancing-embracing model of the enjoyment of negative emotions in art reception. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 40.  https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X17000309
  23. Miall, D., & Kuiken, D. (2002). A feeling for fiction: Becoming what we behold. Poetics, 30, 221–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. Mitchell, M. (1936/1993). Gone with the wind. New York: Warner Books.Google Scholar
  25. Patrick, W. L. (2019, August 19). Why men like to date older women. Research reveals the truth behind the typecasting. Psychology Today. Accessed May 31, 2020, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/why-bad-looks-good/201908/why-men-date-older-women
  26. Sergeyeva, M., & Chesnokova, A. (2008). Language allergy: Myth or reality? In S. Zyngier, M. Bortolussi, A. Chesnokova, & J. Auracher (Eds.), Directions in empirical literary studies: In honor of Willie van Peer (pp. 283–295). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.  https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.5.23serCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. Smith, E. R., & Mackie, D. M. (2000). Social psychology (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
  28. Snyder, M., & Stukas Jr., A. A. (1990). Interpersonal processes: The interplay of cognitive, motivational, and behavioural activities in social interaction. Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 273–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Stollnitz, J. (1991). On the historical triviality of art. The British Journal of Aesthetics, 31(3), 195–202.  https://doi.org/10.1093/bjaesthetics/31.3.195CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  30. van Peer, W. (1995). The historical non-triviality of art and literature. A rejoinder to Jerome Stolnitz. The British Journal of Aesthetics, 35(2), 168–172.  https://doi.org/10.1093/bjaesthetics/35.2.168CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. van Peer, W., Chesnokova, A., & Springer, M. (2017). Distressful empathy in reading literature: The case for terror management theory. Science and Education, 1, 33–42.  https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-1-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. van Peer, W., Hakemulder, F., & Zyngier, S. (2012). Scientific methods for the humanities. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.  https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.13CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. Vargas, C. (2017, October 3). 7 amazing benefits you unknowingly get from reading romance novels. Elitedaily. Accessed May 31, 2020, from https://www.elitedaily.com/p/7-amazing-benefits-you-unknowingly-get-from-reading-romance-novels-2755616
  34. Viana, V., Zyngier, S., Chesnokova, A., Jandre, J., & Nero, S. (2009). Quantitative research in practice: Applying a differential scale questionnaire to literature. Вісник Сумського державного університету, 1(3–4), 67–77.Google Scholar
  35. Weijenberg, R. A. F., Scherder, E., & Lobbezoo, F. (2011). Mastication for the mind – The relationship between mastication and cognition in ageing and dementia. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 35(3), 483–497.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2010.06.002
  36. Whitbourne, S. K. (2015, January 6). How reading can change you in a major way. Psychology Today. Accessed May 31, 2020, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201501/how-reading-can-change-you-in-major-way

Copyright information

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of English Philology and TranslationBorys Grinchenko Kyiv UniversityKievUkraine
  2. 2.Faculty of Languages and LiteraturesLudwig Maximilian UniversityMunichGermany

Personalised recommendations

Cite chapter

Buy options