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

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.

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.