Rethinking the Romance Genre ― Global Intimacies in Contemporary Literary and Visual Culture

Rethinking the Romance Genre examines why the romance has proven such an irresistible form for contemporary writers and filmmakers approaching global issues. Through a series of close readings informed by historical context and transnational reception, Emily S. Davis demonstrates that the generic instability of the romance makes it an especially malleable tool for representing fluid political, sexual, and racial identities and coalitions in an era of flexible global capitalism. In contemporary texts ranging from literary works to films to social media, romance facilitates a range of intimacies that offer new feminist models for understanding affinity and solidarity in the age of globalization.

Emily S. Davis is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at the University of Delaware, USA. Her work on postcolonial literature, gender, and globalization has been published in Camera Obscura, Genders, and College Literature, as well as in several edited collections.