O micie uroczej Italii i przystojnego Włocha w najnowszych polskich powieściach romansowych

The myth of lovely Italy and handsome Italian men in the contemporary Polish romance novels Abstract The article aims at explaining the phenomenon of mass interest in Italy as a setting forcontemporary Polish romance novels. In order to understand said phenomenon, the authoranalyzes three romance novels published within the last decade. The article is divided intothree parts corresponding to aspects of the analyzed phenomenon: representation of thespace of Italy, representations of the Italian men and descriptions of changes occurring infemale characters due to their stay in Italy. The analysis, conducted with the use of Barthes’concept of myth, results in detailed description of elements of Italian myth and conceptsrelated to it. Keywords: Italy, stereotype, myth, space, romanc