ABSTRACT
This chapter describes romance job loss narratives. Fourteen of the thirty-three people interviewed described their job loss as a clearly positive experience. The form of their narrative is romantic. Strong romances give little or no hint of self doubt and provide a clear narrative in which unemployment is regarded as an opportunity to develop an alternative career. Five people narrated the events of their job loss as a strong romance. Those Romances described in the chapter correspond most closely to the heroic romance depicting the hero in a quest for a distant goal that will eventually be achieved and followed by a return home. Whether or not a person actually chose to leave is less important than the ability to portray the leaving as consistent with a line of action that was desirable. The chapter describes two types of job loss associated with improved self-evaluations: strong and weak romance job loss narratives.
