For almost ten years (2013–2022), I have been teaching a segment on popular romance as part of a course in feminist cultural studies on the…
Comments closedCategory: Notes and Queries
Like so many readers of romance and chick lit, we—Maria Butler, a PhD student at University College Cork, and Rosalind Haslett, a Senior Lecturer in…
Comments closedIt seems as if censorship is back in vogue. Truthfully, it never really left. I am preparing to teach a course called “Censorship and Obscenity,”…
Comments closedMy engagement with romance when younger was not conscious despite my teenage reading (and watching) list consisting of paranormal romance. My choice was not framed…
Comments closedI came to the study of romance media largely by accident. I didn’t grow up reading or watching romances: those activities were for girls, or…
Comments closedHere’s what sparked my interest in popular romance: a tottering stack of books next to my mother’s bed. The paperbacks were her romance novels, what…
Comments closedIn July 2021, I travelled for a family holiday to the sleepy, largely rural Shetland Islands (population 22,990) in far northern Scotland. My chosen holiday…
Comments closedI started reading romance novels when I was twelve years old. These books were not my mom’s forbidden paperbacks, which had titles like Wild Rapture…
Comments closedIt’s the summer of 1969, and my father is singing a love song. I am five, living in the white, two-story Dean’s House at the…
Comments closedAs a researcher, I often find myself in a situation where I can reflect on two of the fields I work in at once. These…
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