Adultery scandals involving politicians. Dating websites for married women and men. Raids of polygamous communities. Reality shows about polyamorists. It seems that non-monogamy is everywhere: in popular culture, in the news, and before the courts.
In Fraught Intimacies, Nathan Rambukkana examines how polygamy, adultery, and polyamory are represented in the public sphere and the effect this is having on intimate relationships and aspects of contemporary Western society.
As this book demonstrates, although monogamy is considered and presented as the norm in Western society, many kinds of sexual and romantic relationships exist within its borders. Rambukkana's intricate analysis reveals how some forms of non-monogamy are tacitly accepted, even glamourized, while others are vilified and reviled. By questioning what this says about intimacy, power, and privilege, this book offers an innovative framework for understanding the status of non-monogamy in Western society.
Table of Contents:
Preface: Chasing Non/Monogamy
Introduction: Non/Monogamy and Intimacy in the Public Sphere
1 The Space of (Intimate) Privilege
2 The Adultery Industry: Autonomous Space, Heteronormativity, and Neoliberal Cheating
3 Mapping Polygamy: Discourse, Reterritorialization, and Plural Marriage
4 The Fraught Promise of Polyamory: New Intimate Ethics or Heterotopian Enclave?
Conclusion: Non-Monogamies and the Space of Discourse
Appendix: Canada's Criminal Code (C.26) Statutes on Bigamy and Polygamy
Notes
References
Index
