Sternberg's Theory (Love as a Story) and Comparative Criticism of Contemporary Fiction

Love is a common theme in psychology and literary works that can be examined and compared according to the principles of interdisciplinary research. Sternberg, in his theory of love, believes that any individual follows certain patterns of romantic behavior affected by gender, cultural, and social factors learns, called the love story. Then, on the basis of such romantic behavior patterns, the trend of emotional tendencies and the cause of the persistence or instability of romantic relationships can be explained. What has been considered in the present study is the conformity of the theme of romantic relationships in the plots of the analyzed stories with Sternberg's Theory of Love. The author of this article has attempted to match the couples' relationship patterns in my five novels of “My Bird”, “Dash, Eileen”, “Ecchymosis”, "Autumn is the Last Season”, and “I Turn Off the Lights”, with the love stories that Dr. Sternberg has outlined in his theory, and to indicate its importance in the cause and effect structure of plots. The love stories used in these novels are garden tales, fantasy, remedies and home based on which the logic of the stories’ plots can be explained. Adopting an intertextual perspective, the correspondence between fiction and Sternberg's psychological theory is of particular importance, and it is possible to suggest the study of such stories to teach love stories and correct the reader's inefficient beliefs.