Romantic Fiction, Well-being, and Social Engagement: Exploring the Intersections of Politics and Love (RomPol)

General Overview

Sales of romance and ’feel-good’ fiction are rising across Europe, offering readers happy endings amid global challenges. How do romantic stories respond to social and political issues such as migration, sexism, and climate change? This project explores why readers turn to this fiction, and how the stories they seek represent social and political issues in Europe. Can reading romance serve as a well-being strategy?

Purpose and Significance

This project explores how language and culture (in the form of romantic fiction) affect emotional health, identity, and social cohesion. With a transnational focus, the project incorporates texts in multiple languages, as well as texts that cross borders, both literally and metaphorically. The project recognises literature as a powerful tool for improving well-being and aims to understand how we might replicate the use of literature for well-being.

Implementation Method and Timeline

The project is a collaboration between staff and students at Linnaeus University, the University of Birmingham, the University of Cologne, the University of Murcia, the University of the Balearic Islands (Palma) and the University of Oviedo (Asturias).

The project has three objectives, each with its own method and approach.

1. How romantic narratives tackle social and political topics

We will use textual analysis methods to carry out close reading of individual books and compile a booklist of romantic fiction that discuss social or political issues.

2. How Gen Z readers use romantic fiction for well-being or coping with political issues

We will conduct a survey of reader perceptions of romantic fiction, politics and well-being. We will host five online book club discussions of shortlisted titles.

3. How reading of romance for well-being might be replicated for educational and research use

We will use data from objectives 1 and 2 to co-create teaching, research and reading resources for future use.

Provisional schedule

January 2026: Launch date.

April 2026: Survey launch.

April - June: Online book clubs (five in total).

7-9 September 2026: In-person workshop (Birmingham), including public talk.

October -November 2026: Publication authorship and grant development.

31 December 2026: End of project.

Expected Outcomes

We aim to create a database of books, open-access teaching resources, and a new European network on romantic fiction, politics, and wellbeing. We will host a public talk in Birmingham, UK. In addition, we plan to produce an open-access special issue or edited collection with at least seven co-authored scholarly articles on romantic fiction, politics, and well-being in Europe.

Contact person:

Amy Burge, University of Birmingham