After decades of feminism and deconstruction, romance remains firmly in place as a central preoccupation in the lives of most women. Romance is still the most compelling discourse by which any one of us is inscribed. This critical collection revisits romance across the disciplines, not just in fiction and film, but in a whole range of cultural phenomena. Essays range over such issues as the royal marriage, Valentine's Day, inter-racial relationships and the romance of the scientific quest. All kinds of relationships are brought under the lens of feminist cultural theory, from sex and the single nun to Yukio Mishima, from snuglet puglet to safer sex. Lynne Pearce is the author of "Feminism and the Politics of Reading". Jackie Stacey is the author of "Star Gazing and Female Spectatorship".