The International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (Web)

Romantic love permeates popular culture, and it has for centuries. We hear the discourse of romance in love songs, love stories, and advertisements; in political debates; in advice columns and self-help books; in Disney movies and young adult fiction; in celebrity culture and fandom; and in the semiotic codes and lived decorum of real-life relationships, from hook-ups to break-ups. We understand our own affective lives in terms derived from the culture industry of romantic love, where even singleness is framed in terms of love or its absence.

In every medium and genre, love stories give shape to our narratives about the past (historical romance), the present (is love in crisis, yet again?), and the future (what will romantic relationships look like, centuries from now?). But academic investigations of romantic love and its related topics like gender, sex, relationships, sentiment, and intimacy have long been isolated from one another, both geographically and by discipline. Read more … (Web)