Discursos e Identidades en la Ficción Romántica / Discourses and Identities in Romance Fiction

[...] this collective volume edited by María-Isabel González-Cruz, is a study of import not only to the field of (popular) Romance Studies, but to literary criticism 'tout court.' Published in a bilingual edition—in Spanish and English—and comprised of eight chapters that explore a corpus of romance novels published in English and set mostly in the Canary Islands—and to a lesser extent in the Portuguese island of Madeira—the volume might be mistakenly assumed to keep its focus narrow. In truth, despite its circumscribed geographical scope, it opens a window on the Anglophone literary construction of Southern Europe as a space in partial discontinuity with the modern and the postmodern worlds, a setting particularly appropriate for intercultural encounters and love stories that incorporate a component of time-travelling, of going back in time to reconnect with an allegedly simpler dimension of traditional ideals and values. As such, the study, by shedding light on recurring descriptive patterns and discursive tropes employed in recreating the Canarian archipelago, brings to the surface meaningful assumptions and ideologically grounded views on the cultures and peoples of Southern Europe in general and islanders specifically. [...]

[Extract from book review appearing at the 'Journal of Popular Romance Studies,' vol. 12. (2023). Reviewer: Francesca Pierini]