8. Twelfth Century Courtly Love Inspired Erotic Writings
One wouldn’t think to find much eroticism or kink in 12-century courtly writings, but in truth, the groundwork for much later eroticism was laid in this period’s passionate novels. A common theme of medieval romantic writing was the man whose sole desire was the hand of a woman he couldn’t attain. Often it was a woman of higher status or who was already betrothed to another. His undying love and pain at being unable to have her were common aspects of the stories.
The idea of being a slave for love seems to have originated in this period, and it’s easy to see how being a slave for love developed through the ages into literally being a slave as part of a romantic relationship. The idea of pining for someone so strongly it was physically painful was frequently depicted in the 12th-century romances, which also could easily have transformed over time into the romanticism of actual pain.
While the love depicted in all 12-century courtly romantic literature was quite chaste, the theme of debasing or humiliating oneself in the pursuit of transcendental love certainly has an erotic overtone to it. It isn’t hard to see how such writings could have influenced the later development of more verbal humiliation, debasement, and pain in more explicitly erotic novels like de Sade’s 120 days of Sodom or Sacher-Masoch’s Venus in Furs.