This paper intends to analyse web published love chronicles, called “Thug Love”. They romanticize love stories between North African and Turkey born suburban young girls and boys. This work aims at showing how the “Thug” both resonate with the narrative structure of the Harlequin novels and lean on (while strengthening them) typical representations of the relationship between boys and girls descending from Muslim families in France. Broadly speaking, it deals with demonstrating how the racist ideology flows through the androcentric model of the heterosexual love in the studied works.
Although comparisons/contrasts are made with Harlequin romances, it should be noted that
Les récits sur internet proposent en effet des histoires qui « ne finissent pas toujours bien », le mariage ne constitue pas la finalité de la romance. Les amours « impossibles » mis en récit ne semblent pas destinés à devenir « possibles », autrement dit à donner naissance à un couple installé. (32)
Here's the English version of the abstract:
Although comparisons/contrasts are made with Harlequin romances, it should be noted that