Consuming the Romantic Utopia: Love and the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism

Consuming the Romantic Utopia: Love and the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. Eva I1louz. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1997. 371 pp. ISBN 0-520-20275-9. $45.00 cloth. Time was in Western culture when marriage was unabashedly an economic transaction between families as much as a social bond between husband and wife. Love was seen, at best, as something that would grow within the marriage over time and, at worst, as a chaotic force disrupting the social order. Sure, some people still marry for money, but a lot has changed. The marriage contract has become largely a formal public marking of a couple's private love, and it holds only while love remains, quaint vows of "unto death do us part" notwithstanding. This widely known narrative in which love expels market considerations from courtship contains elements of truth. But as Eva Illouz shows in her important new book, aspects of the marketplace-from shopping and advertising to social class-still permeate contemporary romance. Illouz's work is a wide-ranging exploration of the relationship among the market, love, romance, courtship, and marriage. Given the rise of a world consumer culture, this is a crucial topic. Her book includes both a historical account as well as an extensive empirical, qualitative study of contemporary American culture. Illouz was trained in the French sociological tradition and frames much of her discussion around debates over postmodernism, as well as Bourdieu's ideas about social class. Because she avoids oversimplifications and tends to "interrogate" an issue rather than present a linear argument, her work cannot be readily summarized. This can cause frustration. I sometimes found myself enjoying a chapter only to come up empty handed when I searched for "take-aways" after completing it. This problem is particularly acute in the early chapters. I encourage readers to plug through, for the book gets consistently better as it goes along. The title, Consuming the Romantic Utopia, reflects Illouz's claim that romance is a secular ritual that brings two sacred "utopias" into our everyday lives. By "utopias," Illouz means experiences that temporarily reconcile our economic and social conflicts. The first of these utopias is represented by images of opulence and nonutilitarian luxury (e.g., the candle-lit dinner) that remove the couple from profane concerns of daily life and unite them in a reverie of consumption. The second utopia also removes the couple from everyday life, but this time it places them in wild and exotic nature, strolling hand in hand down an isolated tropical beach. Thus, leisure consumption and images of romance are densely intertwined. Romance is constructed in our culture as not just a good time, but a ritual rejuvenation of a couple's romantic spirit. Illouz pays particular attention to issues of social class. In one interesting finding, she reveals that respondents with high cultural capital tend to reject stories of spontaneous and passionate romantic love as phony and often unhealthy constructions of mass media. Yet, when asked to talk about romantic events in their own lives, these same educated respondents were the most likely to tell stories that closely conformed to romantic cultural scripts. …