Abstract
The article considers twenty-first-century Anglophone romance representations of women set during the events of 1974 in Cyprus. It highlights the creative and political opportunities and ethical challenges of representing the Cyprus Problem in this genre. In representing a gap between the “desires of the feminine” and the motivating forces of ethno-nationalism, the novels remap women’s experience left out of the patriarchal assertions of war. While the novels reinscribe many of the discourses that normalise women’s absences from processes of official reconciliation, they might be seen as drawing popular attention to the issues at stake when considering women and war in Cyprus.
Highlights
When Turkish forces invade Cyprus in Christy Lefteri’s 1974-set A Watermelon, A Fish and a Bible (2011), Maria and her husband Vasos flee their bucolic village home, with its gently chiming bells, lemon groves, men selling fresh produce, the daily unloading of the fish catch, and women embroidering silk
This article considers the ways in which contemporary British Anglophone popular/commercial romance fiction attempts to represent the part played by women in the events of 1974 in Cyprus, newly highlighting the creative and political opportunities and ethical challenges of representing the Cyprus Problem in this genre
The “progressive” elements of the novels point to an alternative discourse for exploring the effects of nationalist political conflict, while the conservatism constrains women’s power and agency
Summary
When Turkish forces invade Cyprus in Christy Lefteri’s 1974-set A Watermelon, A Fish and a Bible (2011), Maria and her husband Vasos flee their bucolic village home, with its gently chiming bells, lemon groves, men selling fresh produce, the daily unloading of the fish catch, and women embroidering silk. Exploring the Cyprus Problem via this genre sheds light on the political possibilities (and limitations) of popular romance, and on ways of representing the hidden women’s history of the conflict.
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