Love and the Politics of Intimacy articulates the concept of love within the relationship between the intimate and the social, rethinking how intimacy is conceived and experienced in the context of 21st-century neoliberalism. Reflecting on experiences of intimate, romantic and sexual love, and the role of individual identity, these essays explore historical trajectories that have culminated in particular, contemporary experiences of intimate love. Politically, this work links identity and articulation of the self to liberatory practices in the arenas of friendship, romance and sex.
This interdisciplinary exploration of what love means in the 21st century incorporates academic writing and original creative work from established and emerging scholars around the globe. Essays from across the humanities and social sciences – including literary studies, sociology, psychology, philosophy and gender studies – interrogate the role of relational intimacy on topics of ‘Love and Romance’, ‘Love and Liberation’ and ‘Love and Technologies of Intimacy’. The volume looks at the past, present and future in search of inspiration for transforming and re-charting the pathways of love, seeking a more diverse and emancipatory model of social life and what it would take to restore love to social and institutional spaces.
List of Figures Notes on Contributors Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Stanislava Dikova, University of Essex, UK; Wendy McMahon, University of East Anglia, UK; and Jordan Savage, University of Essex, UK Part 1: Love and communities 1. ‘Love is a battle, love is a war’: James Baldwin’s use of love to represent race, gender and sexuality in segregated America Daniele Nunziata, University of Oxford, UK 2. Liberating the Victorian politics of love through Jack the Lass and Anne Lister Vicky Panossian and Salma Yassine, Central European University, Austria 3. The lover and the tribe Ian Davidson, University College Dublin, Ireland 4. A love letter to white friends Deya Mukherjee, Independent Scholar, UK Part 2: Intimate bodies 5. The sharper end of love: When sex is painful, how is intimate love navigated? Reflections from a qualitative study in England and France Hannah Loret, Nottingham Trent University, UK 6. Kathy Acker’s voice in Blood and Guts in High School and Deleuze and Guattari’s ‘desiring-machines’ Gemma Curto, University of Sheffield, UK 7. Digital love: Love through the screen/of the screen Daniel O’Brien, University of Essex, UK 8. #BlackLove and dating sites: A South African perspective of cyber-love and cyber-ethics during Covid-19 Adelina Mbinjama, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa Part 3: Love’s boundaries 9. Imploding fireworks: Love and self-knowledge in the contemporary Italian sentimental novel Francesca Pierini, University of Basel, Switzerland 10. Lovespeak, love novels and the onset of modernity Gary Kelly, University of Alberta, Canada 11. Love as theoretical object in Marguerite Duras’s writings Crisia Constantine, Griffith University, Australia 12. Love without object Lauren Edwards, York University, Canada 13. Post-humanism and the road to castle Frankisstein Lawrence Quill, San Jose State University, USA Index
Stanislava Dikova is MHRA Research Associate in Humanities at Keele University, UK, and Visiting Fellow in Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at University of Essex, UK. Wendy McMahon is Senior Lecturer in American Studies (Literatures and Cultures) at University of East Anglia, UK. Jordan Savage is Lecturer in United States Literature at University of Essex, UK.
Reviews for Love and the Politics of Intimacy: Bodies, Boundaries, Liberation
This collection offers an excellent overview of current concerns and themes in research into love and relationships from the perspectives of literature, cultural studies and activism. It thereby provides readers and scholars with opportunities to follow some of these leads in order to discover further productive entanglements of emotion, intimacy and social structures. * Michael Gratzke, Professor, Love Research Network, University of Dundee, UK * So you thought you knew all about love? This bold, provocative volume traverses histories and cultures, troubling dominant constructions of individual and collective intimacies. Its interdisciplinary studies of love transgress borders and rewrite scholarly frontiers. * F. Fiona Moolla, Associate Professor of English, University of the Western Cape, South Africa * Stressing the liberatory potential as well as the beleaguered history of intimate relations forged in friendship, by romantic attachments, or through various sexual practices, this volume is both rigorous and gratifyingly sensitive in analyzing the intricate, often baffling and even distressing politics of intimacy from multiple disciplinary perspectives. A volume that is as inspiring as it is indispensable in surveying the history and future of the way we love. * Maria DiBattista, Professor of English, Princeton University, USA *
