Introduction: Love matters

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book traces and rehearses connections between love and materiality- the latter understood as anything that solidifies the emotion of loving in a real or fictional life. Love and matter are linked in firm but complex, and often implicit, ways. Love is a fundamental set of practices and emotions which cuts through and shapes many areas of existence, from relationships to interactions to social organization. Love as a subject of research has seen a sustained rise in interest over the past few years with the introduction of both Feminist Love Studies and Critical Love Studies as ways of studying practices and representations of love both in their own right and in their socio-political contexts of the present.