Overview

Winston Churchill famously described the political alliance between the US and UK as a 'special relationship', but throughout the cultural history of these two countries there have existed transatlantic 'special relationships' of another kind affairs between British and American citizens who have fallen in love, with one another but often too with the idea(l) of that other place across the ocean. From romantic novelist Elinor Glyn in the 1920s to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle today, this collection examines some of the history, contemporary manifestations and enduring appeal of US-UK romance across popular culture. Looking at both historical and contemporary case-studies, drawn from across film, television, music, literature, news and politics, this is a timely intervention into the popular romantic discourse of US-UK relations, at a critical and transitional moment in the ongoing viability of the special relationship.

Full Product Details

Author:   Barbara Jane Brickman (Associate Professor, University of Alabama) ,  Deborah Jermyn (Reader in Film & TV, Roehampton University) ,  Theodore Louis Trost (Professor, University of Alabama)
Publisher:   Edinburgh University Press
Imprint:   Edinburgh University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 1.70cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.440kg
ISBN:  

9781474452083

ISBN 10:   1474452086
Pages:   312
Publication Date:   14 December 2021
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements List of Illustrations List of Contributors INTRODUCTION – Still crazy after all these years?: The 'special relationship' in popular media PART ONE – '[Not] just a girl, standing in front of a boy…': Feminism, women and transatlantic romance 1. 'Atlantic Liners, It Girls and Old Europe in Elinor Glyn's Romantic Adventures', by Karen Randell and Alexis Weedon 2. '""World Turned Upside Down"": The Role of Revolutions in Maya Rodale's Regency-Set Romances', by Veera Mäkelä 3. 'Bridget Jones's Special Relationship: No Filth, Please, We're Brexiteers', by William Brown 4. 'Sharon Horgan, postfeminism and the transatlantic psycho-politics of ""woemantic"" comedy', by Caroline Bainbridge PART TWO – Love beyond borders: The global city, cosmopolitanism and transatlantic space 5. '""British people are awful"": Gentrification, queerness and race in the US-UK romances of Looking and You're the Worst', by Martha Shearer 6. 'Catastrophe: Transatlantic Love in East London', by Frances Smith 7. 'On the Fragility of Love Across the Atlantic: Cosmopolitanism and Transatlantic Romance in Drake Doremus's Like Crazy (2011)', by Manuela Ruiz 8. 'Nancy Meyers's The Parent Trap and The Holiday, and the mise-en-scène of romance and transatlantic space', by Deborah Jermyn PART THREE - Two lovers divided by a common language: 'British-ness', 'American-ness' and identity 9. '""American, a slut, and out of your league"": Working Title's equivocal relationship with Americanness', by Jay Bamber 10. '""It's the American Dream"": British audiences and the contemporary Hollywood rom-com', by Alice Guilluy 11. 'Business-like Lords and Gentlemanly Businessmen: The Romance Hero in Lisa Kleypas's Wallflowers Series', by Inmaculada Pérez-Casal 12. 'Imagine: The Beatles, John Lennon, and love across borders', by Theodore Louis Trost PART FOUR - Political coupledom: Flirting with the special relationship 13. '""Political Soulmates"": the ""Special Relationship"" of Reagan and Thatcher, and the Powerful Chemistry of Celebrity Coupledom', by Shelley Cobb 14. '""I Will Be with You, Whatever"": Blair and Bush's Baghdadi Bromance', by Hannah Hamad 15. 'Holding hands as the ship sinks: Trump and May's special relationship', by Neil Ewen 16. '""Harry has gone over to the dark side"": Race, Royalty and US-UK Romance in Brexit Britain', by Nathalie Weidhase

Reviews

Spanning a century of representations, from the novels of Elinor Glyn to the Prince Harry/Meghan Markle royal romance, this volume, scholarly and entertaining in equal parts, explores the seemingly endless dimensions and ambiguities of what Alice Guilluy amusingly calls 'a (somewhat) special relationship' between the UK-US through the focus of romantic comedy, bringing together, in a surprisingly coherent whole, cosmopolitanism and gentrification, Julia Roberts and Tony Blair, Bridget Jones and Donald Trump, Obama and Sharon Horgan, the Beatles and Brexit - an endlessly inventive book and a must read for those who, in and outside the academy, continue to dispute the cultural relevance of romcom.--Professor Celestino Deleyto, University of Zaragoza

Author Information

Barbara Jane Brickman is Associate Professor of Media and Gender Studies at the University of Alabama. Her work has appeared in Camera Obscura, The Journal of Film and Video, and Journal of Popular Music Studies. Since the publication of her first book, New American Teenagers: The Lost Generation of Youth in 1970s Film, she has written a volume on the film Grease for the Cinema and Youth Cultures series. She is also the founder and director of the Druid City Girls Media Camp in Tuscaloosa, AL. Deborah Jermyn is Reader in Film & TV at the University of Roehampton, where she is Co-Director of the Centre for Research in Film and Audiovisual Cultures. She is author and editor of 11 books, including Nancy Meyers (2017) and (with Stacey Abbott) Falling in Love Again: Romantic Comedy in Contemporary Cinema (2009). She continues to work on gender, genre, and Hollywood, with a particular interest in ageing femininities. Theodore Louis Trost holds a joint appointment in the New College and the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama, where he teaches courses in religion and popular culture, the Gospel of Mark, and songwriting. He received his doctorate from Harvard University in American religious history. He also worked for nine years as a flight attendant with the now-defunct Pan American World Airways.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions