Sociologies (Jun 2010)
D’amour et de feu
Abstract
The author explains how one makes one’s life a novel based on the many stories told by real persons having lived that particular experience of falling in love at first sight. For the subject, it is an experience during which feelings and emotions rise to melting levels. Not only identity of the subject is put at risk, so also is his or her social equilibrium for the boundary between reality and fiction fades and reason leaves its place to emotion. The author strives then to understand from the interior what is happening at the exterior. The symbolic sense of fire is central and is expressed in three major images: “striking fire”, “shinning fire” and “liquid fire”. The overall comprehensive approach is put into perspective and contextualised since it is preceded by a meticulous epistemology based on a history of those categories somewhat suspect to classical sociology: emotions and sentiments.
