Courtly Love and Aubergines: What Medieval Literature Has in Common with Emojis

Isabella Managò conducts research into medieval literature and demonstrates that issues of gender, power and their representation are not an invention of the modern era. Photo: Uni Graz/Begsteiger

Plants and fruits were already used as symbols of love in the Middle Ages. German studies scholar Isabella Managò, together with her colleagues Brigitte Spreitzer-Fleck and Julia Zimmermann, explains how this came about and why this figurative language remains familiar to us to this day.

Peach and aubergine emojis have long since come to represent more than just fruit and vegetables. In text messages, they are sometimes used as code for the penis, vulva or buttocks. However, this form of encoding sexual innuendo is by no means a modern digital invention. Even medieval texts used nature as a way of talking about sexual desire.

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Dagmar Eklaude

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