Love and the Politics of Intimacy: Bodies, Boundaries, Liberation

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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.

Reviews

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 *

Author Bio

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.