‘Some Fashions in Love’: Victoria Cross and the Contestation of Compulsory Monogamy
This article examines how the Anglo-Indian author “Victoria Cross” (Annie-Sophie Cory) challenges mononormativity – the normalised idea that monogamy is the “right” or even “natural” form of romantic love – within the framework of popular romance fiction. Cross not only describes or recreates contem...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR)
2020-08-01
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| Series: | Journal of Popular Romance Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/08/some-fashions-in-love-victoria-cross-and-the-contestation-of-compulsory-monogamy/ |
| _version_ | 1797752168505147392 |
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| author | Cornelia Wächter |
| author_facet | Cornelia Wächter |
| author_sort | Cornelia Wächter |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article examines how the Anglo-Indian author “Victoria Cross” (Annie-Sophie Cory) challenges mononormativity – the normalised idea that monogamy is the “right” or even “natural” form of romantic love – within the framework of popular romance fiction. Cross not only describes or recreates contemporaneous constructions of romantic love but deploys her fictional writing to render romantic love visible in its constructedness and its entanglements with gendered and, in some cases, racial power structures. In doing so, she takes account of the ways in which love operates in the service of white heteropatriarchy, but also explores love’s potential for liberation. While Cross’s narrative challenges to gendered, and to a certain extent also racial, constraints on love in middle-class Victorian morality have received considerable scholarly attention, the degree to which Cross defamiliarises and contests compulsory monogamy has, as of yet, remained unexplored. In many ways, as this article demonstrates, Cross anticipates current debates in critical love studies. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:59:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f1255dd9a33e4907a431dbb1ad9303e8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2159-4473 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:59:18Z |
| publishDate | 2020-08-01 |
| publisher | International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Popular Romance Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-f1255dd9a33e4907a431dbb1ad9303e82023-08-07T18:17:45ZengInternational Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR)Journal of Popular Romance Studies2159-44732020-08-0191114‘Some Fashions in Love’: Victoria Cross and the Contestation of Compulsory MonogamyCornelia WächterThis article examines how the Anglo-Indian author “Victoria Cross” (Annie-Sophie Cory) challenges mononormativity – the normalised idea that monogamy is the “right” or even “natural” form of romantic love – within the framework of popular romance fiction. Cross not only describes or recreates contemporaneous constructions of romantic love but deploys her fictional writing to render romantic love visible in its constructedness and its entanglements with gendered and, in some cases, racial power structures. In doing so, she takes account of the ways in which love operates in the service of white heteropatriarchy, but also explores love’s potential for liberation. While Cross’s narrative challenges to gendered, and to a certain extent also racial, constraints on love in middle-class Victorian morality have received considerable scholarly attention, the degree to which Cross defamiliarises and contests compulsory monogamy has, as of yet, remained unexplored. In many ways, as this article demonstrates, Cross anticipates current debates in critical love studies.https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/08/some-fashions-in-love-victoria-cross-and-the-contestation-of-compulsory-monogamy/annie sophie corycompulsory monogamycritical love studiesvictoria cross |
| spellingShingle | Cornelia Wächter ‘Some Fashions in Love’: Victoria Cross and the Contestation of Compulsory Monogamy Journal of Popular Romance Studies annie sophie cory compulsory monogamy critical love studies victoria cross |
| title | ‘Some Fashions in Love’: Victoria Cross and the Contestation of Compulsory Monogamy |
| title_full | ‘Some Fashions in Love’: Victoria Cross and the Contestation of Compulsory Monogamy |
| title_fullStr | ‘Some Fashions in Love’: Victoria Cross and the Contestation of Compulsory Monogamy |
| title_full_unstemmed | ‘Some Fashions in Love’: Victoria Cross and the Contestation of Compulsory Monogamy |
| title_short | ‘Some Fashions in Love’: Victoria Cross and the Contestation of Compulsory Monogamy |
| title_sort | some fashions in love victoria cross and the contestation of compulsory monogamy |
| topic | annie sophie cory compulsory monogamy critical love studies victoria cross |
| url | https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/08/some-fashions-in-love-victoria-cross-and-the-contestation-of-compulsory-monogamy/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT corneliawachter somefashionsinlovevictoriacrossandthecontestationofcompulsorymonogamy |