Contemporary Western Love Narratives and Women in TV Series: A Case Study
Contemporary Western Love Narratives and Women in TV Series: A Case Study

Summary/Abstract: This paper documents continuities and shifts in love stories unfolding in contemporary North-American TV series. We present results from a 2015-2017 case study on the Quebec TV series La Galère (2007-2013), showcasing four women in their forties as they deal with love relationships and intimate life. Based on the analysis of the four protagonists’ love narratives and of the specific challenges they face when dealing with love, we discuss the features of love as they emerge from the narratives and the temporality of love that structures them. While the scholarly literature generally posits two coexisting, yet concurring love semantics (traditional or romantic vs. modern or partnership), our analysis of the love narratives in La Galère highlights a conception of love integrating tradition with modern reflexivity, idealization with scepticism, romanticism with pragmatism. As to the temporality of love, our research found a similar synergy between traditional and modern motives, which structures a temporal unfolding mixing circularity and linearity. These multiple references are mobilized by the main characters of the TV series to manage conflicting ambitions and to perform relationship work with regard to relational patterns that still entail a heavier workload and higher costs for women.

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