Staggeringly eclectic and yet with deep underlying unities, this remarkable volume redraws the map of love, romance, and sexuality in its tremendous historical and contemporary diversity. Expertly edited by Ann Brooks, thirty-two essays shed fascinating light on love, from medieval Europe to twenty-first-century America, from the Middle East to East Asia, from traditional forms of relationship to new revolutionary advances in gender, racial and sexual inclusiveness, in consent discourse, and in sexual justice. A huge achievement.
Simon May, Kings College London, UK, author of Love: A New Understanding of an Ancient Emotion and Love: A History
The Routledge Companion to Romantic Love is a wonderfully expansive collection of essays that breaks boundaries by expanding our understanding of romantic love. For the first time, critical studies in a global context are presented in conjunction, ranging from love in popular literature and film to historical texts, the effects of modernization, and the fan experience. With its exceptionally wide span of sources and interdisciplinary methodology, The Routledge Companion to Romantic Love explores love in varied forms traditional, transgressive, and among all sexualities and genders. By demonstrating that diverse models co-exist even within a historical period, a national culture, or a literary genre, this volume is indispensable for anyone interested in the growing field of critical love studies.
Susan Ostrov Weisser, Adelphi University, USA, author of The Glass Slipper: Women and Love Stories
This is of course a book of parts, but it is no curates egg, rather it is full of fascinating and important ideas. Romantic love is a slippery thing, in many ways a marker of the modern yet also a carrier of traditions which are long established and culturally specific. In turn there are increasing tensions with globalised representations, as well as with Feminist criticisms of romance as something woven from an outworn patriarchal web which continues to trap women. The Routledge Companion to Romantic Love explores these matters and much, much more, giving this reader both the excuse to re-visit Georgette Heyers novels, and the impetus to explore the rich array of writing on and about love from, for example, South and East Asia and the Middle East. I am sure that other readers, across many disciplines, as well as those who are simply puzzled by the power of love, will find much of interest in the pages of this book.
Sue Scott,Honorary Professor, Newcastle University, UK, editor of Theorising Sexuality
THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO ROMANTIC LOVE
The Routledge Companion to Romantic Love is an essential multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary reference work for students and researchers interested in the field of love, romance and popular romance fiction. This first-of-its-kind volume illustrates the broad and interdisciplinary nature of love studies. International contributors, including leaders in their field, reflect a range of perspectives from cultural studies, history, literature, popular romance studies, American studies, sociology and gender studies. Comprising over 30 chapters by a team of international contributors, the Companion is divided into 12 parts:
- Love, romance and historical and social change
- Love and feminist discourses
- Love and popular romance fiction
- Love, gender and sexuality
- Romancing Australia
- South and Southeast Asian romance communities
- Nation, place and identity in US popular romance novels
- Romantic love and national identity in Chinese and Taiwanese discourses of love
- Muslim and Middle Eastern romances
- Discourses of romance fiction and technologies of power
- Writing love and romance
- Legal and theological discourses and sexual politics
This is an important and unique collection aimed at researchers and students across cultural studies, women and gender studies, literature studies and sociology.
Ann Brooks is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh and has been a Visiting Professor at the Australian Catholic University since 2018. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS). Ann has previously held senior academic positions in the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand. She is author of Academic Women (1997), Postfeminisms: Feminism, Cultural Theory and Cultural Forms (Routledge, 1997), Gender and the Restructured University (2001), Gendered Work in Asian Cities: The New Economy and Changing Labour Markets (2006), Social Theory in Contemporary Asia (Routledge, 2010), Gender, Emotions and Labour Markets: Asian and Western Perspectives (Routledge, 2011), Emotions in Transmigration: Transformation, Movement and Identity (with Ruth Simpson, 2012), Popular Culture, Global Intercultural Perspectives (2014), Consumption, Rights and States-Comparing Global Cities in Asia and the US (with Lionel Wee, 2014) and Emotions and Social Change: Historical and Sociological Perspectives (co-edited with David Lemmings, Routledge, 2014 and 2016). Recent books include Genealogies of Emotions, Intimacy and Desire: Theories of Changes in Emotional Regimes from Medieval Society to Late Modernity (Routledge, 2017), Women, Politics and the Public Sphere (2019) and Love and Intimacy in Contemporary Society: Love in an International Context (Routledge, 2020).
THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO ROMANTIC LOVE
Edited by Ann Brooks
Cover image: Getty Images
First published 2022
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2022 selection and editorial matter, Ann Brooks; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Ann Brooks to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: Brooks, Ann, 1952- editor.
Title: The Routledge companion to romantic love / edited by Ann Brooks.
Description: 1 Edition. | New York: Routledge, 2021. | Series: Routledge companions to gender | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021011206 (print) | LCCN 2021011207 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367900694 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032061474 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003022343 (ebook) | ISBN 9781000432732 (adobe pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Love--Social aspects. | Women--Psychology. | Intimacy (Psychology) | Love in literature. | Feminist fiction. | Romance fiction. | Sex role. | Social change.
