Consuming the Romantic Utopia: Love and the Cultural Contradictions of CapitalismTo what extent are our most romantic moments determined by the portrayal of love in film and on TV? Is a walk on a moonlit beach a moment of perfect romance or simply a simulation of the familiar ideal seen again and again on billboards and movie screens? In her unique study of American love in the twentieth century, Eva Illouz unravels the mass of images that define our ideas of love and romance, revealing that the experience of "true" love is deeply embedded in the experience of consumer capitalism. Illouz studies how individual conceptions of love overlap with the world of clichés and images she calls the "Romantic Utopia." This utopia lives in the collective imagination of the nation and is built on images that unite amorous and economic activities in the rituals of dating, lovemaking, and marriage. Since the early 1900s, advertisers have tied the purchase of beauty products, sports cars, diet drinks, and snack foods to success in love and happiness. Illouz reveals that, ultimately, every cliché of romance—from an intimate dinner to a dozen red roses—is constructed by advertising and media images that preach a democratic ethos of consumption: material goods and happiness are available to all. Engaging and witty, Illouz's study begins with readings of ads, songs, films, and other public representations of romance and concludes with individual interviews in order to analyze the ways in which mass messages are internalized. Combining extensive historical research, interviews, and postmodern social theory, Illouz brings an impressive scholarship to her fascinating portrait of love in America. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 56
Page 10
... tion were greatest . Nietzsche , The Will to Power Romantic love , we are told by some , is the last repository of the au- thenticity and the warmth that have been robbed from us by an in- creasingly technocratic and legalistic age . To ...
... tion were greatest . Nietzsche , The Will to Power Romantic love , we are told by some , is the last repository of the au- thenticity and the warmth that have been robbed from us by an in- creasingly technocratic and legalistic age . To ...
Page 11
... tion , between a postmodern disorder and the still - powerful work dis- cipline of the Protestant ethic , between the classless utopia of affluence and the dynamic of " distinction . " My point of departure is Daniel Bell's evocative ...
... tion , between a postmodern disorder and the still - powerful work dis- cipline of the Protestant ethic , between the classless utopia of affluence and the dynamic of " distinction . " My point of departure is Daniel Bell's evocative ...
Page 13
... tion ; the private realm of leisure , now structured by the twin spheres of consumption and mass media ; and the " culture industry " ( advertising , mass media , publishing , education , etc. ) . To take an example relevant to this ...
... tion ; the private realm of leisure , now structured by the twin spheres of consumption and mass media ; and the " culture industry " ( advertising , mass media , publishing , education , etc. ) . To take an example relevant to this ...
Page 15
... tion concerns the blurring of the boundary between the real and its rep- resentation . The perception that this boundary was becoming increas- ingly vague is already discernible in cultural commentaries of the early twentieth century ...
... tion concerns the blurring of the boundary between the real and its rep- resentation . The perception that this boundary was becoming increas- ingly vague is already discernible in cultural commentaries of the early twentieth century ...
Page 26
... tion of romance , " on the other hand , concerns the ways in which ro- mantic practices increasingly interlocked with and became defined as the consumption of leisure goods and leisure technologies offered by the nascent mass market.3 ...
... tion of romance , " on the other hand , concerns the ways in which ro- mantic practices increasingly interlocked with and became defined as the consumption of leisure goods and leisure technologies offered by the nascent mass market.3 ...
Contents
13 | |
16 | |
21 | |
27 | |
A Romantic Tale Spectacle | 30 |
Conclusion | 34 |
Trouble in Utopia | 36 |
The Price of Love | 37 |
A Postmodern Romantic Condition | 160 |
Conclusion | 169 |
Reason within Passion | 175 |
Charting the Heart | 178 |
Passion within Reason Reason within Passion | 180 |
The Uncertainties of the Heart | 184 |
Therapeutic Discourse as Reflexive Discourse | 189 |
The Reasons for Passion | 196 |
Alone in Public | 42 |
Dating and the Spirit of Consumerism | 54 |
Conclusion | 64 |
From the Romantic Utopia to the American Dream | 69 |
You Could Be Here Now | 71 |
Such a Natural Love | 79 |
Romance as Invisible Affluence | 83 |
Codes Are Getting Tired | 89 |
Conclusion | 98 |
An AllConsuming Love | 100 |
Reenchanting the World | 101 |
A Consuming Romance | 108 |
The Luxury of Romance | 120 |
Travel Nature and Romance | 125 |
Romance as Liminality | 130 |
Ideology or Utopia? | 133 |
Conclusion | 139 |
Real Fictions and Fictional Realities | 141 |
Love at First Sight | 145 |
Realist Love | 148 |
Reality as Fiction | 154 |
Fiction as Reality | 158 |
Agapic and Erosic Love | 199 |
a Very Reasonable Madness | 203 |
Socioeconomic Boundaries | 208 |
Moral and Personality Boundaries | 215 |
Educational and Cultural Boundaries | 218 |
I Talk Therefore You Love Me | 220 |
Love for Free | 228 |
Conclusion | 233 |
The Class of Love | 235 |
The Elementary Forms of Romance | 237 |
Love as Difference | 239 |
Love and Symbolic Domination | 253 |
Class Romance and the Structure of Everyday Life | 256 |
Conclusion | 273 |
A Happy Ending? | 276 |
A Few Words About Methods | 285 |
Questionnaire | 292 |
Images of Romance | 300 |
Notes | 305 |
References | 333 |
Index | 353 |
Other editions - View all
Consuming the Romantic Utopia: Love and the Cultural Contradictions of ... Eva Illouz Limited preview - 2023 |
Consuming the Romantic Utopia: Love and the Cultural Contradictions of ... Eva Illouz Limited preview - 1997 |
Consuming the Romantic Utopia: Love and the Cultural Contradictions of ... Eva Illouz Limited preview - 2023 |
Common terms and phrases
agapic American argue associated boundaries Bourdieu Cambridge century chapter cial commodities communication competence consumer consumerist contemporary couple cultural capital cultural competence dating dinner discourse economic emotional everyday example expression feelings Female forms gender going Hallmark card hedonist idea ideal income intense interview intimacy late capitalism leisure liminality love stories lovers luxury Lystra Male mance mantic marriage married mass mass media meanings metaphors middle middle-class modern moral narrative nature nice nomic norm one's partner passion person Photoplay postmodern postmodern culture Randall Collins rational realm restaurant ritual role romantic bond romantic fiction romantic love romantic practices romantic relationships romantic utopia semiotic sense sexual social sociologists Sociology someone sphere of consumption spontaneity structure suggests symbolic talk theme things tion traditional University Press upper-middle-class respondents values Walker Evans woman women working-class working-class respondents York