Event

The Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS) presents a Research seminar by Lisa Allen-Agostini, MPhil Interdisciplinary Gender Studies on the topic "Love, Caribbean Style: Romance, Gender and Power in Contemporary Caribbean Popular Romantic Fiction." 

This event takes place from 10 to 11am. 

Abstract 

This study argues that contemporary Caribbean romantic popular fiction will yield valuable insights into social relations of gender, race and class, particularly regarding women and power in the public and private arenas. Using a multifaceted approach, the author seeks to understand how Caribbean women’s private and public power is affected by the heterosexual love relationship and how this is reflected in the Caribbean popular romance. Contemporary Caribbean romantic popular fiction has not received sustained academic attention. This area of inquiry could prove fruitful in investigating not only notions of romantic love and power, gender, race and class, but also representations of the Caribbean landscape as “exotic” and “other” as the formula of the popular romance often depends significantly on the use of a pastoral escape in which the protagonists will find romantic unity. The primary methodology used in this investigation will be the writing of a 50,000-word Caribbean popular romance. The author will also undertake discursive analysis based on the combination of textual and contextual analysis of six extant Caribbean romance texts, gleanings from academic and cultural sources, the author’s reflexive writing and reader response to the new work.