Rethinking the Romance Genre

Emily S. Davis is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at University of Delaware, USA.

"In globalizing the formulaic provincialisms of traditional genre critique, from Egypt and Palestine, to South Africa, South Asia, and the West Indies, from the 1980s anti-apartheid struggle to the 2011 Arab uprisings, Davis's critical textual readings offer a provocatively uncomfortable combination of romance and politics." - Barbara Harlow, Louann and Larry Temple Centennial Professor of English Literature, University of Texas at Austin, USA "Davis makes a compelling contribution to comparative genre studies by theorizing the contemporary global romance. Arguing against dismissals of romance as simply popular or conservative, she demonstrates a critical reading practice - drawing on feminist and postcolonial theory as well as recent work in affect studies - to illuminate the intersections of intimacy and desire with the larger, uneven forces of globalization." - Alexandra Schultheis Moore, Associate Professor of English, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA "Genre fiction is the next great frontier in contemporary literary studies. Emily S. Davis maps out that territory by showing how the romance novel has absorbed and refashioned the critique of globalization. We are indebted to Davis for that alone. But she also claims that the critique of globalization needs romance fiction. With this surprising turn, her book breaks new ground. Rethinking the Romance Genre will spur important conversations about the politics of genre fiction." - Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Associate Professor of English, Rutgers University, USA

• Introduction: Unfulfilled Desires: Producing and Consuming the Global Romance 1. 1980s South African Fiction and the Romance of Resistance 2. Rewriting the Colonial Romance: Intimacies Between Women 3. The Gothic Global: Capitalist Excesses, Postcolonial Returns 4. The Intimacies of Globalization: Bodies and Borders On-Screen Conclusion: Electronic Affects