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The Romance Genre: Exploring Love, Fantasy, and Controversy

This article discusses the characteristics and appeal of romance novels, including the debate on whether they empower or enforce patriarchal ideals. It also explores the various perspectives on the romance genre and its significance in the literary marketplace.

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The Romance Genre: Exploring Love, Fantasy, and Controversy

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  1. Image credit: Victor GAD Marija Dalbello Reading Interests of Adults Romance fiction Rutgers School of Communication and Informationdalbello@rutgers.edu

  2. Overview • _______________________________________ • Introduction • What is a Romance? • Genre characteristics and appeal • “The Formula” • Romance controversy • Romance champions • Romance detractors • The Realists • In the literary marketplace • History and types of romance • Conclusion

  3. What is a romance • Definition _______________________________________ • The main plot of a romance novel must revolve around the two people as they develop romantic love for each other and work to build a relationship together. Both the conflict and the climax of the novel should be directly related to that core theme of developing a romantic relationship, although the novel can also contain subplots that do not specifically relate to the main characters' romantic love. Furthermore, a romance novel must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." • Romance Writers of America at: http://rwanational.org

  4. What is a romance? _______________________________________ • Romance scholarship • A woman’s genre • Primary audience are women • Writers are women (mostly) • In focus for feminist critics • Genre conventions • Constitutive:Happily Ever After (HEA) • Regulative: Alpha Male Hero - the tallest man in the book, the one with the darkest hair and the bluest eyes), Plain but Spunky Heroine • Recurring stereotypes: the Rape Scene

  5. What is a romance • Female fantasy? _______________________________________ • Escapist fantasy in which a “heroine gentles a warrior” (his battleground can be anywhere from the boardroom to the bedroom to the sites of historic wars) and the two live happily ever after. (Krentz) • It is a “literature of optimism in which the woman (almost) always wins” (Krentz) • “I still choose to enjoy the fact that, somewhere, a warrior is being tamed by an angel” (Kelly Kimbrough, a romance reader (from Tixier Herald, p. 201) • OR …

  6. What is a romance • Patriarchal nightmare?_______________________________________ • Venue for celebrating and maintaining the patriarchal domination over female desire • Representations that enforce passivity and promote a submissive and externally-controlled view of female desire • Coping mechanism (escapist literature) • Displacement of a deep need for nurturing that isn’t satisfied in the context of heterosexual marriage - unfulfilled women’s oedipal desire (nurturing man as displacement of desire for an absent nurturing mother)? (Radway 14-15)

  7. Genre characteristics and appeal • What readers like _______________________________________ • The woman is the lead character • The woman is a strong character • The man surrenders to the woman • The reader needs validation of her beliefs • The reader wants a predictable pleasure • The reader needs her own space

  8. Genre characteristics and appeal • What writers think _______________________________________ • Readers distinguish fantasy and reality • Female empowerment at the center • Subversion of patriarchy - women exert power over men • Integration of male and female in psychological terms • Celebration of life • Character identification rich and complex • Story-line rich and complex: heroine vanquishes villain in the hero without destroying the hero

  9. Genre characteristics and appeal • What kind of literacy _______________________________________ • Personal kind of reading - “sincerity” of writing part of appeal • For avid readers HEA is constitutive element • For readers looking for the romantic story but do not require HEA - romantic tragedy can be romance • Reader’s advisory requires tact and diplomacy to determine the kind of fantasy reader responds to (reader looks for a particular era, setting, degree of sexiness, overall tone) • Readers are not passive but active constructors of texts - discriminating between the “failed” and the “ideal” romance

  10. Genre characteristics and appeal • What kind of literacy _______________________________________ • Coded language of covers • Coded language of discourse • Purple prose conceals a wealth of information about the characters and situations • Iconography of covers presents a rich story of the history of romance genre • Pay attention to imprints and labeling - they determine content

  11. FORMULA I Berger Download from course shell - Doc sharing

  12. FORMULA II Wendell & Tan Download from course shell - Doc sharing

  13. Romance controversy • Romance detractors • _______________________________________ • Literary theorists • Dismissal of genre as non-literature • Elitist • Feminists • Romance reading seen as maintaining status quo of the patriarchal marriage and power relations • False consciousness • Politicized reading of texts; ideological disagreement with texts • Tania Modleski (1982), Kay Mussell (1984) • Romances are not helping readers change their life • Romances are over-consoling • Romances are addictive (repetitive reading)

  14. Romance controversy • Romance champions • _______________________________________ • Feminist backlash • Critique of feminist interpretations (Jayne Ann Krentz 1992) • Readers confirm relevance of genre through consumption, individual taste for particular fantasy • Romance is fantasy - complexity of appeal • Romances maintain powerful myths

  15. Romance controversy • The Realists (Controversy moderators) • _______________________________________ • Act of reading as “declaration of independence” (one thing a woman does for herself) • Reading as resistance to publisher-imposed formula through selection as a form of critical reading • Reading as integrated in everyday life and as intervention in the life of actual social subjects • Janice Radway study (1984; 1991) validates romance reading without moralizing it

  16. Romance fiction In the literary marketplace • _______________________________________ • Publishing programmed for a mass-market • Semi-programmed publishing initiated by Harlequin through market research, branding and product placement (1970s) • Romances have a global appeal, phenomenal sales (Harlequin Enterprises sales in hundreds of millions worldwide, published in over 100 international markets and translated into twenty languages

  17. Mills & Boon

  18. Harlequin Enterprise

  19. Harlequin at 60 “A look back at Harlequin’s six decades offers a social history of love. The first pregnancy storyline arrived in the 1960s; the late ‘70s saw a surge of sexual content; Fabio debuted during the excessive 1980s.”

  20. Programming the covers Click on icon to watch video

  21. Historical development _______________________________________ • Precursors and foundational works • Novels of sensibility - Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740) • Domestic fiction, woman’s fiction - 1820-1870 • Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813) • Gothic romances • Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca (1938) steady-seller (1960s) • Georgette Heyer’s Regency historicals from 1930s • Gothic romances boom - (1960s - 1970s) • Consolidation and modernization of the industry (1970s-1980) • Sweet savage romance novels defining genre • 1972: Kathleen Woodiwiss, The Flame and the Flower; • 1974: Rosemary Rogers, Sweet Savage Love • Diversity and continuous popularity of romances • 1990s introduction of varied female characters, multicultural romance • New lines addressing the feminist critiques of the genre • New audiences and niche markets

  22. Types of romance • _______________________________________ • Contemporary • Womanly romance • Soap opera • Fantasies of Passion • Contemporary Soap Opera • Traditional Womanly Romance • Contemporary Mainstream Womanly Romances • Glitz and Glamour • Contemporary Romance • Historical • Frontier and Western Romance • Native American • Scotland • Regency (England) • Inspirational Historical Romance • Saga • Hot Historicals • Sweet-and-Savage • Spicy

  23. Types of romance • _______________________________________ • Romantic-Suspense • Contemporary Romantic Suspense • Historical Romantic Suspense • Fantasy / Science Fiction Romantic-Suspense • Gothic • Fantasy and Science Fiction Romance • Fantasy • Time Travel • Paranormal Beings • Futuristic/Science Fiction • Ethnic Romance

  24. Conclusion • _______________________________________ • The meaning of romances constructed by readers, writers, critics • Fantasy of female power or patriarchal domination? • Mass-publishing and marketing phenomenon • Genre of female identification

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