At first sight, Mills & Boon romances may seem to bear little or no relation to environmentalism; however, critical comments about the negative impact of sun, sea and sand tourism are not uncommon in the pages of these novels. The tourism boom of the 1960s and 1970s led to increasing concern about its effects on the environment. Using a historical approach, I focus on several romance novels set in southern Europe, the area attracting the highest rate of visitors at that time and visibly suffering the consequences of unbridled construction. Some of the tools of econarratology and cognitive ecocriticism serve to provide further insights into the novels.
---
In this article, I focus on a group of Mills & Boon category romances that criticise the negative impact of mass tourism on the environment. The texts selected are eleven novels that give early voice to environmental preoccupations. They were published between 1971 and 1989 and are set in southern Europe, the area attracting the highest rate of visitors at the time and visibly suffering the consequences of unbridled construction. All the authors are British except one: Elizabeth Hunter, who was born in Kenya and who set some of her novels in Mediterranean countries.
---
In the novels analysed, I argue, the heroine’s journey generally takes her from cold, rainy England to sunny southern Europe, from the modernity of the city to a more traditional society, from urban rush to quiet strolls, and from asphalt to countryside. The scenery functions as a means of integration into the other country, which she comes to love as she does the hero. One of the ways in which appropriation of place occurs is through contact with nature.
Here's the abstract:
---
---