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"Illouz creates a map of the intricate relationship between love and economics in American society. In an analytical style reminiscent of that of Daniel Bell in its scope and intellectual ambition, she argues that romantic love captures our minds and hearts by promising transgression through consumption of leisure and nature."--Michelle Lamont, author of
Money, Morals, and Manners
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction to the Sociology of Love
Romantic Love as a Cultural Practice
Romantic Love as a Utopia of Transgression
Overview
On Methodology
PART I. WHEN ROMANCE MET THE MARKET
Chapter 1. Constructing the Romantic Utopia
The Secularization of Love, or Love as a New Religion
Love on Sale
Romance vs. Marriage
A Romantic Tale Spectacle
Conclusion
Chapter 2. Trouble in Utopia
The Price of Love
Alone in Public
Dating and the Spirit of Consumerism
Conclusion
PART 2. ALL THAT IS ROMANTIC MELTS INTO AIR: LOVE AS
A POSTMODERN CONDITION
Chapter 3· From the Romantic Utopia to the American Dream
"You Could Be Here, Now"
Such a Natural Love
Romance as Invisible Affluence
Codes Are Getting Tired
Conclusion
Chapter 4· An All-Consuming Love
Reenchanting the World
A Consuming Romance
The Luxury of Romance
Travel, Nature, and Romance
Romance as Liminality
The Commerce of Love: Ideology or Utopia?
Conclusion
Chapter 5. Real Fictions and Fictional Realities
Love at First Sight
Realist Love
Reality as Fiction
Fiction as Reality
A Postmodern Romantic Condition
Conclusion
PART 3. THE BUSINESS OF LOVE
Chapter 6. Reason within Passion
Charting the Heart
Passion within Reason, Reason within Passion
The Uncertainties of the Heart
The Science of Love
Therapeutic Discourse as Reflexive Discourse
Chapter 7. The Reasons for Passion
Agapic and Erosic Love
A Very Reasonable Madness
Socioeconomic Boundaries
Moral and Personality Boundaries
Educational and Cultural Boundaries
I Talk, Therefore You Love Me
Love for Free
Conclusion
Chapter 8. The Class of Love
The Elementary Forms of Romance
Love as Difference
Love and Symbolic Domination
Class, Romance, and the Structure of Everyday Life
Conclusion
Conclusion: A Happy Ending?
The Story of Love
Appendix 1. A Few Words about Methods
Appendix 2. Questionnaire
Appendix 3. Images of Romance
Notes
References
Index
About the author
Eva Illouz teaches sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is the Academic Director of the Program of Cultural Studies as well as a member of The Center for the Study of Rationality
Summary
A study of American love in the twentieth century that 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. It studies how individual conceptions of love overlap with the world of cliches and images.
