1 Introduction2 Modernity and Postcolonial Romance: Preliminary Remarks2.1 Reconceptualising and Transforming Modernity: Modernity as a Transcultural Phenomenon2.1.1 A Transcultural Understanding of Modernity as a Political Intervention: Two Versions2.1.2 Towards a Cosmopolitan Paradigm2.2 From Exotic Romance to Postcolonial Romance2.2.1 Exotic Romance and the Modern Versus Anti-ModernImagination2.2.2 Exotic Romance, Alternative 'Conceptual Realities' and Cosmopolitan Visions2.2.3 Ghosh's and Shamsie's Versions of Postcolonial Romance: An Outline3 Transcending the Borders of 'the Modern': Romance in the Novels of Amitav Ghosh3.1 Western Modernity's Global Triumph: The Ibis Trilogy (2008-15) and the Historical Romance Tradition3.1.1 The Trilogy's Divided World3.1.2 The Narrative of 'Modernisation'3.1.2.1 ... But Where Exactly is the Anti-Modern? The BattleBetween the 'New' and the 'Old' World Reconsidered3.1.2.2 'Re-Made in a More Enlightened Mould': CharacterDevelopment and the Idea of a Modernising World3.1.3 The Romance Realm: (Western) Modernity's Banned 'Other'3.1.3.1 Beyond the Borders and Boundaries of 'the Modern'3.1.3.2 The Ibis Community: A Continuation along the IndianOcean Lines3.1.4 The Trilogy's Outlook: Modernity as a 'Train Headedfor Disaster'3.2 The Other World of the Sundarbans: The Hungry Tide (2004) and the Imperial Romance Tradition3.2.1 Travelling to a Pre-Modern Place? The 'Denial ofCoevalness' in Postcolonial India3.2.2 A World of Boundaries Versus Its Romance Alternative3.2.3 Beyond Exotic Romance and Notions of a DividedWorld4 Romance, Interconnected Histories and a Future Beyond Divisions in Kamila Shamsie's Novels4.1 Replacing Exotic Romance with Transcultural Romance: A God in Every Stone (2014)4.1.1 Deconstructing Exotic Romance - RejectingImaginaries of Division4.1.1.1 A World 'Apart': an Imperial Fantasy4.1.1.2 From Seeing a Connected World to Becoming Involved 4.1.1.3 Rethinking Global Feminism: Towards a Transcultural Solidarity4.1.2 Transcultural Romance and Shamsie's RevisionistHistory4.2 Visions for a World at Peace: The Troubled Romance Plots of Burnt Shadows (2009) and Kartography (2002)4.2.1 Against Classifications: Romance in Burnt Shadows4.2.1.1 The 'Ghost of Konrad Weiss': Transcultural Romance and Cosmopolitan Lifeworlds4.2.1.2 Endangered Romance: Romance Versus the Logic of Typification4.2.2 Kartography's Romance of Connections4.2.2.1 Two Love Stories and the Hope for a ReconciledPakistan4.2.2.2 (Un)seeing Connections and the Motif of the Barrier: Politicising Genre Conventions4.2.2.3 Beyond a National Tale: Connecting karachi and Connecting the World5 From Alternative Visions to Alternative Worlds: Postcolonial Romance in Context6 Bibliography