Questions for Viva

What is Amatonormativity? How is it different from similar concepts defined earlier?

Amatonormativity encompasses societal assumptions about relationships with the primary assumption
being that all people prosper in exclusive romantic relationships. So it is basically the acceptance of a
normative idea of exclusive romantic relationships and all ideas associated with it.

What are aromantics?

Aromantics are people who are disinterested in romantic love and unable to experience it.

How does your project fit into Cultural Studies? How is it relevant? How is it an important problem?

First of all, there has been very little research on aromantics beyond literature and even lesser within
the confines of literature which means that the idea of looking at aromantics in literature is
underexplored, specially in India. Most people don’t know who aromantics are and if one explains it to
them, the idea often gets rejected. In real life, you would think that being aromantic is not that big of a
deal, you can simply choose to not love. However, that is not the case, aromantics face constant
pressure to conform and partake in romantic relationships. Their refusal attaches labels to them, Oh
that person is a little weird, still a bachelor must be something wrong him. People really tear into their
personal life. What I want to explore is how much of this discrimination, or misunderstanding about
aromantics is also reflected in Literature. I’ll give you a good example. I’m sure we all remember Archie
comics and the character Jughead. Now that character Jughead is often read as an Aromantic character.
He believes that his cap, the beanie that looks like a crown apparently repels women and that’s why he
wears it everyday. Yet, we’ll find that Ethel constantly chases him around. And even though he’s
incredibly loyal, he is constantly mocked and derided for not conforming to the dating scene of Riverdale
and choosing food over romantic love.

What do you mean by hegemony of love?

So the other thing that I want to explore is how romantic love has taken a place superior to other forms
of love. We are currently in a place where love has become synonymous with romantic love and we
have to clarify if we’re using the word love in any other way. Also, we circle back to amatonormativity,
the idea of normative exclusive romantic relationships is just another example of that. Why aren’t
platonic relationships, polymarous relationships, any other non romantic relationships given the same
level of importance?

What do you mean by romantic love?

Who do you see as aromantics in literature? Are they people who lack agency to love or are incapable
of love?

Aromantics in literature would be characters who actively avoid romantic involvements. I don’t want to
consider characters who lack the agency to love because of what part they play in the text. Not all
characters are developed enough to have agency to love but that doesn’t mean they can be considered
aromantic.

How are they dehumanized/ othered?

In Jughead Comics you’ll often find him being called strange. Holmes is often portrayed as someone who
is cold and calculative, someone heartless.

How do you define love?

Strong feeling or bond

Is love subjective or objective to you?

If you’re talking about my research plan then it is Objective. But amatonormativity precisely addresses
the subjectivity of people when it comes to aromantics or for that matter, people who love differently

Why did you choose this topic?

I feel like it is a unique topic, I want to do something original. And when I started reading about all of
this, it just stuck with me. We kind of grow up with this idea of love all around us, the idea of romantic
love is constantly sold to us through mass media, companies have capitalized heavily on it. So, I’m sitting
here pitching this topic but initially even I took some time to wrap my head around this.

How did you come to choose this topic?

What do you mean by romance?

What will be your plan of action? Chapter structure?

What are your primary readings?

At the moment I have three primary readings, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Jughead Jones Comics,
Archie Comics, Alice Oseman’s Loveless.

What are your secondary readings?

How are aromantics isolated?

My proposed research topic is Exploring portrayal of Aromantics and Hegemony of Romantic Love
My aim is to understand how Alloromantic Majoritarianism, Amatonormativity and the hegemony
of romantic love impact the portrayal of Aromantic characters. Most people don’t know who
aromantics are and if one explains it to them, the idea often gets rejected. In real life, you would think
that being aromantic is not that big of a deal, you can simply choose to not love. However, that is not
the case, aromantics face constant pressure to conform and partake in romantic relationships. Their
refusal attaches labels to them, Oh that person is a little weird, still a bachelor must be something wrong
him. People really tear into their personal life. What I want to explore is how much of this
discrimination, or misunderstanding about aromantics is also reflected in Literature through a textual
and discourse analysis of my texts. I’m going to be looking at The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Alice
Oseman’s Loveless and Jughead Jones comics along with TV Shows Sherlock and Riverdale and the
Movie series Sherlock Holmes to also compare how the portrayal of these aromantic characters changed
from the text to the movie or TV adaptations to conform to Amatonormative Trends. I will also be
exploring Hegemony of Love or how romantic love has taken a place superior to other forms of love.
We are currently in a place where love has become synonymous with romantic love and we have to
clarify when we’re using the word love in any other way. Also, we circle back to amatonormativity, the
idea of normative exclusive romantic relationships is just another example of that. Why aren’t platonic
relationships, polymarous relationships, any other non romantic relationships given the same level of
importance?