The Popular Culture of Romantic Love in Australia

How important is romantic love in Australian culture? How have Australians portrayed falling in love? And how is this process related to sex, intimacy and marriage? Does gender shape the performance and expression of love? Has romantic love been co-opted by the market and repackaged as a product for consumption? Is there a role for romantic love in nation-building? This book explores how love was represented in Australia from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. It looks at the courtship practices of colonial Australians and what they understood by love. It traces the rise in popularity of Valentine’s Day. It analyses how love has been represented in film, television mini-series, romance novels, comics, pop and country music, the literature of sexology, and representations and political debates about same-sex love and marriage.