This thesis examines the imagination of the Maldivian archipelago in the context of transnational romantic relationships that develop during tourist travel to the Maldives, between European female tourists and Maldivian men. The theoretical framework is based on anthropological and sociological approaches to love and emotion, as well as on theories of reflexivity and individualization in late modernity. Through the concept of the imagination of »paradise,« the Maldives are presented as a space of romance tourism, where direct contact between tourists and local men becomes possible only with the liberalization of tourism on inhabited islands, within an Islamically marked normative order. The empirical part is based on three in-depth interviews with European women who relocated to the Maldives because of a partner, together with participant observation. The analysis, organized around the working concept of »Maldivian Fever,« shows that love, the imaginary of the place, and the desire for a different life are inseparably intertwined, and that the imaginary of paradise does not dissolve after relocation but is instead transformed.
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