Talk of Love: How Culture Matters

Description

Talk of love surrounds us, and romance is a constant concern of popular culture. Ann Swidler's Talk of Love is an attempt to discover how people find and sustain real love in the midst of that talk, and how that culture of love shapes their expectations and behavior in the process. To this end, Swidler conducted extensive interviews with Middle Americans and wound up offering us something more than an insightful exploration of love: Talk of Love is also a compelling study of how much culture affects even the most personal of our everyday experiences. Cover Copyright Title Page Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part I. Culture’s Confusions: Who Wrote the Book of Love? 1. Finding Culture 2. Repertoires Part II. How Culture Works: Love Stories 3. Examined and Unexamined Lives 4. Cultured Capacities and Strategies of Action 5. Settled and Unsettled Lives Part III. Culture from the Outside In: Love and Marriage 6. Love and Marriage 7. Ties that Do Not Bind 8. Codes, Contexts, and Institutions Conclusion. How Culture Matters Methodological Appendix Notes Bibliography Index