Bad Romance: Love and Capitalism in Contemporary Fiction

Catalog description

Is love all we need – or is it an illusion, a marketing ploy? This class examines what contemporary English-language literary fiction can tell us about the role of romance in our present day lives. In particular, we will consider how contemporary depictions of love exploit, contribute to, distract from, and compensate for our lives under late capitalism. Is the novel (still) concerned with sex and property and can it tell us anything new about either? To that end, we will look at a number of contemporary works alongside their cultural, political, and artistic contexts, and explore what we might learn about the state and possibility of romance today. Can love liberate us from capitalism and move us towards spiritual fulfillment, or does it entrench us even deeper in existing power relations? Can art envision new romantic configurations and to what end? Readings may include works by Rachel Cusk, Sally Rooney, Garth Greenwell, Julian Barnes, and Kazuo Ishiguro. We will also consider work by theorists including Frederic Jameson, Judith Butler, Roland Barthes, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Vivian Gornik, and bell hooks; look at art by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Tracey Emin, Nan Goldin, Sophie Calle, and Peter Hujar; and screen a rom-com or two.