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# Journal of Popular Romance Studies

Open-Access Scholarship on Love in Popular Culture

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## Posts

- [The Future of Historical Research in Popular Romance Studies](https://www.jprstudies.org/2023/09/the-future-of-historical-research-in-popular-romance-studies/) - As a researcher, I often find myself in a situation where I can reflect on two of the fields I work in at once. These fields oftentimes share commonalities, though they are distinct disciplines. For example, in my work I have researched circumcision debates in popular and niche magazines, often erotic and pornographic in nature.
- [(Loves) Me, (Loves) Me Not: Unbuilding of Selfhood in the Romance of the Present](https://www.jprstudies.org/2023/06/loves-me-loves-me-not-unbuilding-of-selfhood-in-the-romance-of-the-present/) - 1. Introduction The story of the contemporary romance genre has been the story of advocates and detractors fighting over its worth. Escalated by the rise of the category romance in the mid-20th century and compounded by second-wave feminist thought, romance is a cipher onto which countless variants of this fight are projected, from the value
- [The Feminist Possibilities of Heteroglossic Spaces in Contemporary Young Adult Romance Novels](https://www.jprstudies.org/2023/06/the-feminist-possibilities-of-heteroglossic-spaces-in-contemporary-young-adult-romance-novels/) - Romance novels, which have historically been read primarily by girls and women, have long been seen as containing problematic messages, particularly when aimed at young people (e.g., Christian-Smith; Jarvis; Radway). For example, in their exploration of young adult (YA) gothic novels, Smith and Moruzi wrote that “by emphasizing the romance, these novels reinforce heteronormative, patriarchal
- [Scandalous Romance Down Under: Becoming and Unbecoming a Heroine in <em>The Bachelor/ette Australia</em> and <em>The Bachelorette New Zealand</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2023/07/scandalous-romance-down-under-becoming-and-unbecoming-a-heroine-in-the-bachelor-ette-australia-and-the-bachelorette-new-zealand/) - Introduction The Bachelor/ette franchise has been the locus of scandal for many years. Notably, recently, the US franchise erupted in a scandal over racism, provoked by the fact that Rachael Kirkconnell, the eventual winner of Season 25 of The Bachelor, featuring the first ever Black Bachelor, Matt James, was pictured at an antebellum South-themed party
- [Editor's Note: Issue 15.1](https://www.jprstudies.org/2026/07/editors-note-issue-15-1/) - In the very first Editor’s Note to issue 1.1 of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies (JPRS), back in 2010, Eric Selinger and Sarah S. G. Frantz posed a question: “Is there an academic field of Popular Romance Studies?” Their answer was: “it abounds.” The abundance of popular romance scholarship is partly the reason for a
- [Review: <em>Conflict and Colonialism in 21st Century Romantic Historical Fiction: Repairing the Past, Repurposing History</em> and <em>Travel and Colonialism in 21st Century Romantic Historical Fiction: Exotic Journeys, Reparative Histories</em>, ed. by Paloma Fresno-Calleja and Hsu-Ming Teo](https://www.jprstudies.org/2026/07/review-conflict-and-colonialism-in-21st-century-romantic-historical-fiction-repairing-the-past-repurposing-history-and-travel-and-colonialism-in-21st-century-romantic-historical-fiction-exotic-jou/) - In the evolving landscape of literary studies, particularly within the domains of popular romance and historical fiction, two recent edited collections stand out as significant contributions: Conflict and Colonialism in 21st Century Romantic Historical Fiction: Repairing the Past, Repurposing History (2024) and Travel and Colonialism in 21st Century Romantic Historical Fiction: Exotic Journeys, Reparative Histories?
- [Review: <em>Love Letters: Saving Romance in the Digital Age</em>, by Michelle Janning](https://www.jprstudies.org/2026/07/review-love-letters-saving-romance-in-the-digital-age-by-michelle-janning/) - Michelle Janning’s Love Letters: Saving Romance in the Digital Age is part of the Routledge Series for Creative Teaching and Learning in Anthropology. According to the series foreword, this series is intended to help undergraduate students learn more about culture and society through everyday objects, such as money, coffee culture, and baseball gloves (xii). Janning
- [Review: <em>Publishing Romance Fiction in the Philippines</em>, by Jodi McAlister, Claire Parnell, and Andrea Anne Trinidad](https://www.jprstudies.org/2026/07/review-publishing-romance-fiction-in-the-philippines-by-jodi-mcalister-claire-parnell-and-andrea-anne-trinidad/) - Romance fiction is a significant part of the global publishing industry. However, its dynamics beyond Anglo-American contexts remain underexplored. Publishing Romance Fiction in the Philippines seeks to correct this serious imbalance by not only looking at the Anglo-American romance publishing dynamics but also at a vibrant locally based publishing ecosystem. As part of the Elements
- [Defining the Trope in Romance Fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/2026/07/defining-the-trope-in-romance-fiction/) - Trope n. A named, recognizable plot device or feature that raises expectations about the direction of the plot or character interactions. A tag that references a recognizable plot device and serves as a keyword for reviewing, promoting, and cataloguing books. Such tags can be incorporated into a book’s paratext to draw readers by evoking anticipatory
- [Literary Fiction from the Perspective of Romance Scholarship: André Aciman’s <em>Room on the Sea</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2026/07/literary-fiction-from-the-perspective-of-romance-scholarship-andre-acimans-room-on-the-sea/) - This Note reads André Aciman’s Room on the Sea (2025) in light of Gillian Beer’s The Romance (1970), a short treatise on the literary form from its origins to the modern era.[1] The protagonists of Aciman’s novella, a man and a woman in their sixties, casually meet while waiting to be possibly selected to serve
- [Addressing Bias Against SOPO VEE OPP Polyamory](https://www.jprstudies.org/2026/07/addressing-bias-against-sopo-vee-opp-polyamory/) - Introduction: Polyamory and Media Representation Polyamory is built on principles of honesty, communication, and mutual agreement (Sheff, 2014). The reality television show "Sister Wives," which premiered in 2010, represents a significant milestone in the visibility of non-monogamous relationships. The show follows Kody Brown and his plural family, initially consisting of four wives and eighteen children.
- [Romancing the Darkness: Understanding Trauma in the Romance Genre](https://www.jprstudies.org/2026/07/romancing-the-darkness-understanding-trauma-in-the-romance-genre/) - Introduction Recent decades have shown a marked rise in the societal, public, and scholarly awareness of trauma, especially in Western culture (see Foulkes and Andrews; Gillis). Literary theorists have observed how, intentionally or not, writers adapt the dominant psychological and social issues of their time into their work. For instance, Ronald Granofsky traces the emergence
- [Marian Keyes’ <em>This Charming Man</em>: An Alcoholic Love Story](https://www.jprstudies.org/2026/07/marian-keyes-this-charming-man-an-alcoholic-love-story/) - Marian Keyes’ ninth novel, This Charming Man (2008) is a multi-person narrative told from the perspectives of four women, Lola, Alicia, and twins Grace and Marnie, who have intimate relationships with politician and domestic abuser Paddy de Courcy. Set in Ireland on the cusp of the collapse of the Celtic Tiger, the novel accompanies these
- [Happily Ever After?/Happily Ever After! Negotiating the Gothic in Contemporary Dark Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2026/07/happily-ever-after-happily-ever-after-negotiating-the-gothic-in-contemporary-dark-romance/) - Content note: This article discusses sexual violence and abuse in the context of romance novels. In the first book of Amelia Wilde's Beast of Bishop's Landing trilogy (2021), Secret Beast, the male main character clears out the New York Public Library so the female main character can lose her virginity "in full view of a
- [(Dis)Honourable Escapes: Reassessing Sexuality in Georgette Heyer’s Historical Romances](https://www.jprstudies.org/2026/07/dishonourable-escapes-reassessing-sexuality-in-georgette-heyers-historical-romances/) - Introduction In her 1970 review of Charity Girl for The Times, Marganhita Laski derisively wrote, “even if Miss Heyer’s heroines lifted their worked muslin skirts, if ever her heroic dandies unbuttoned their daytime pantaloons, underneath would be sewn-up rag dolls” (285). While she acknowledges that most contemporary popular fiction lacks explicit depictions of sex, Heyer’s
- [Narrating Histories of Love and Violence: The Civil War and Alyssa Cole’s <em>A Hope Divided</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2026/07/narrating-histories-of-love-and-violence-the-civil-war-and-alyssa-coles-a-hope-divided/) - Introduction Historical romance: For decades, the term has been likely to conjure up images of dashing young bucks and fashionable ladies, dukes and highlanders and innocent young heiresses, or possibly brash American merchants and Southern belles. The genre is not actually monolithic, but its public perception has been dominated by particular character types and narrative
- [Bodies that Become Content: Reading <em>Fujoshi</em>’s Voices and Discursive Construction of Cuteness in Thai BL Novels](https://www.jprstudies.org/2026/07/bodies-that-become-content-reading-fujoshis-voices-and-discursive-construction-of-cuteness-in-thai-bl-novels/) - Introduction This article investigates an issue surrounding BL fandoms from a literary angle. It discusses fantasy in Thai BL texts, in conjunction with the commercially-driven affective practices prevalent in the BL industry. The label BL (Boys Love), sometimes used synonymously with the term yaoi, designates a genre of fiction which caters mostly to female readers.
- [Love Stories and Stories About Love: Popular and Literary Romance in Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s <em>Season of Crimson Blossoms</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2026/06/love-stories-and-stories-about-love-popular-and-literary-romance-in-abubakar-adam-ibrahims-season-of-crimson-blossoms/) - Season of Crimson Blossoms is the novel by Abubakar Adam Ibrahim that catapulted him onto the international literary scene following its success in Nigeria. The novel was published by Parrésia in Nigeria in 2015 and went on to win the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature, Africa’s most lucrative and prestigious literary award. Season of Crimson
- [A Decolonised Alpha Hero? Negotiating Masculinities in Nigerian Romance Novels](https://www.jprstudies.org/2026/05/a-decolonised-alpha-hero-negotiating-masculinities-in-nigerian-romance-novels/) - Introduction Women of all ages have always enjoyed romance. They ask for it in their movies, in their music, from their lovers and in their books. But in Africa, they have had to find it in the pages of Western romances [sic] series like Mills and Boon, Silhouette and other Harlequin titles. It is time
- [Editor's Note: Volume 14](https://www.jprstudies.org/2026/01/editors-note-volume-14/) - It was in Brussels, Belgium, in 2010, that I first ‘discovered’ the field of popular romance studies. Attending the second (although my first) conference of the International Society for the Study of Popular Romance, I was thrilled and inspired to meet a group of people who were also invested in exploring the world of romantic
- [Review: <em>Young Adult Gothic Fiction: Monstrous Selves / Monstrous Others</em>, ed. by Michelle J. Smith and Kristine Moruzi](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/12/review-young-adult-gothic-fiction-monstrous-selves-monstrous-others-ed-by-michelle-j-smith-and-kristine-moruzi/) - In Young Adult Gothic Fiction: Monstrous Selves / Monstrous Others, editors Michelle J. Smith and Kristine Moruzi weave together a collection that examines “youth culture at a moment in the twenty-first century when ideas about young people are in considerable flux” (2). By exploring the “marked increase” in “Gothic themes of liminality, monstrosity, transgression, romance
- [Review: <em>Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture</em>, by Derritt Mason](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/12/review-queer-anxieties-of-young-adult-literature-and-culture-by-derritt-mason/) - In Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture, Derritt Mason uses multiple forms of queer young adult (YA) media as a lens through which to examine the intersection of queerness, youth, and anxiety. Mason’s compelling book is an evolutionary step in scholarship on queer young adult media, building on earlier works by Frances Hanckel
- [Review: <em>ChicaNerds in Chicana Young Adult Literature: Brown and Nerdy</em>, by Cristina Herrera](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/12/review-chicanerds-in-chicana-young-adult-literature-brown-and-nerdy-by-cristina-herrera/) - In ChicaNerds in Chicana Young Adult Literature: Brown and Nerdy (2020), Cristina Herrera focuses on the previously overlooked intersection of racial, gender, and intellectual identity in contemporary Chicana young adult (YA) literature. By coining the term “ChicaNerd” to refer to Chicana adolescence “tinged with nerdiness” (3), Herrera challenges the stereotypical depiction of Chicana teenagers as
- [Romance, Eroticism, and Intimacy in a Work of <em>Nancy Drew</em> Fanfiction: Cross-Reading Personal Pedagogies and Literacies](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/12/romance-eroticism-and-intimacy-in-a-work-of-nancy-drew-fanfiction-cross-reading-personal-pedagogies-and-literacies/) - Introduction This feminist cross-reading of a Nancy Drew “smutty” fanfiction story emerges from our shared interest in literacy education, as well as our respective interests in embodiment, bodies, and sexuality education (Kaye) and children’s literature and fanfiction (Amber). As critical and feminist friends, we collaborate on projects about academic friendship and love (Hare and Moore,
- [You Go, Girl! Nancy Drew in the Girl Power Era](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/12/you-go-girl-nancy-drew-in-the-girl-power-era/) - In Hit and Run Holiday (1986), iconic teen sleuth Nancy Drew and her gal pals George and Bess meet up with a friend in Fort Lauderdale for some fun in the sun—only to watch in horror as their friend is run down by a car! Nancy gets on the culprit’s trail, picking locks with the
- [“I’d really, really like a boyfriend”: A Narratological Examination of Adolescence, Ideology, and Subjectivity in Indian and Indian American YA Netflix Romances](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/12/id-really-really-like-a-boyfriend-a-narratological-examination-of-adolescence-ideology-and-subjectivity-in-indian-and-indian-american-ya-netflix-romances/) - Introduction Media viewing practices have changed drastically in the last two decades with audiences no longer having to wait for television episodes to be aired. Instead, viewers can watch their favorite shows wherever, whenever, and however much they please due to the influx of various over-the-top (OTT) streaming platforms. Netflix, in particular, cornered the market
- [Main Character Energy: Black Girls Getting the Love They Deserve in Elise Bryant’s Young Adult Novels](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/12/main-character-energy-black-girls-getting-the-love-they-deserve-in-elise-bryants-young-adult-novels/) - This article focuses on Black Young Adult (YA) romance, but I start by thinking about two snapshots of popular culture. Snapshot One is the rise of the term “main character energy” to refer to a character who has agency, one who takes charge of her life and prioritizes herself in a healthy and affirming way.
- [Together Forever: Heterodestiny and the Soulmate Trope in Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses Series](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/12/together-forever-heterodestiny-and-the-soulmate-trope-in-sarah-j-maass-a-court-of-thorns-and-roses-series/) - Introduction When feminist scholars employ the terms “compulsory heterosexuality” or “compulsory sexuality” they are usually doing so in reference to queer persons or communities who feel pressured by social, political, and or economic forces to perform heterosexuality, or, in the case of asexual persons or communities, to perform any kind of sexual attraction.[1] For example,
- [“Leading dual lives, even literarily”: Voice, Visibility, and Ghostwriting in the Sweet Valley Franchise](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/12/leading-dual-lives-even-literarily-voice-visibility-and-ghostwriting-in-the-sweet-valley-franchise/) - Introduction Authorship is a profession in flux. Ranging from the anonymous and attributed, individual and collective, or even mythical writers of ancient and medieval periods, to the idealised author as a figure of creative genius and visionary during the Romantic era, and finally to the current overemphasis on bestselling and celebrity authors, which often overshadows
- [Introducing (Un)defined YA / Series / Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/12/introducing-undefined-ya-series-romance/) - Rather than presenting YA series romance as a unified category, this special issue considers it as a site of continuous negotiation. Anyone who grew up reading Sweet Valley High, defined themselves as a Twihard, or is watching the current Twilight resurgence via a teen who just stole their beloved “Team Jacob” T-shirt from the back
- [Review: <em>Romance Fandom in 21st-Century Pakistan: Reading the Regency</em>, by Javaria Farooqui](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/12/review-romance-fandom-in-21st-century-pakistan-reading-the-regency-by-javaria-farooqui/) - Javaria Farooqui’s Romance Fandom in 21st-Century Pakistan is the first drop of rain in the generally dry and arid research-scapes of Popular Romance Studies in Pakistan. When I came across this book, I was pleasantly surprised to see formal scholarly debate on a genre which is usually looked down upon in Pakistan’s high brow culture
- [The Debasement of Love and its Cure in Romance: Psychoanalysis and Healing Through Feminization in Loretta Chase’s <em>Lord of Scoundrels</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/12/the-debasement-of-love-and-its-cure-in-romance-psychoanalysis-and-healing-through-feminization-in-loretta-chases-lord-of-scoundrels/) - Introduction Love is central to romance novels. This is hardly a controversial statement. However, many scholars, readers, and authors continuously grapple with the term. For example, Francesca M. Cancian asserts that love is a combination of instrumental and expressive qualities; love is indicated through both actions and words (693). According to Victor Karandashev, love comprises
- [Breaking Boundaries through the Body: Love, Monogamy, and Heteropessimism in Fredrik Backman’s Fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/10/breaking-boundaries-through-the-body-love-monogamy-and-heteropessimism-in-fredrik-backmans-fiction/) - Introduction: The Body in Love Fredrik Backman’s fiction has been lauded for its depictions of the human experience, particularly in relation to love and romance, and how it intersects with gender, sexuality, and ageing. As a contemporary Swedish author, his oeuvre offers critical depictions of the family and heterosexual monogamy, particularly when constructed under the
- [Baited: <em>A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow</em> and the Anglophone Reception of Japanese Yuri Romance Manga](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/07/baited-a-tropical-fish-yearns-for-snow-and-the-anglophone-reception-of-japanese-yuri-romance-manga/) - Compared to the better-known genre of “boys’ love” manga, the Japanese tradition of yuri romance manga has received limited scholarly attention in the West. Also known as “girls’ love” manga, yuri deals with romantic relationships between girls or women, most often teenagers or young adults. Although the genre’s roots go back to the early twentieth
- [Review: <em>Orgasmic Bodies: The Orgasm in Contemporary Western Culture</em>, by Hannah Frith](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/07/review-orgasmic-bodies-the-orgasm-in-contemporary-western-culture-by-hannah-frith/) - What is an orgasm? This is a question researchers have tried to identify and understand for the last seventy or so years. It has been subject to many medical, psychological, sociological, and feminist research projects. The subject is seductive and pulls interest from many different fields, but it is not just researchers that are interested;
- [Review: <em>Creating Identity: The Popular Romance Heroine's Journey to Selfhood and Self-Presentation</em>, by Jayashree Kamblé](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/07/review-creating-identity-the-popular-romance-heroines-journey-to-selfhood-and-self-presentation-by-jayashree-kamble/) - Jayashree Kamblé’s monograph not only adds significant dimensions to the intersecting fields of popular romance studies, gender studies, and cultural studies by exploring the question of a heroine’ identity in genre fiction, but it does so with such scholarly finesse that one is tempted to read the book again and to liberally incorporate its insights
- [Between Desire and Responsibility: Unplanned Pregnancies in Contemporary Romance Novels](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/06/between-desire-and-responsibility-unplanned-pregnancies-in-contemporary-romance-novels/) - Introduction A one-night stand followed by an unplanned pregnancy is a plot opening that offers portrayals of female sexuality, complications, and a forced relationship that may lay the ground for a love story. The examples that exist are even more interesting as fictional responses to the last decades’ polarizing debates in the US over reproductive
- [<em>When Harry Met Sally</em>… friendship, fear and orgasms](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/05/when-harry-met-sally-friendship-fear-and-orgasms/) - While working late at night on my laptop in early December 2023 with my television set kept on—on mute—I caught a glimpse of the opening titles of When Harry Met Sally… (1989) and the titular characters’ introduction in Chicago before they drive together to New York City and begin their adult life. That was it.
- [Broken Slippers and Glass Ceilings: Exploring the Romance of Reading Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/05/broken-slippers-and-glass-ceilings-exploring-the-romance-of-reading-romance/) - At the ripe old age of nineteen, I found myself falling for romance novels long after my friends had already journeyed from the whimsical lands of Enid Blyton to the ballrooms of Jane Austen and were already sailing in the tumultuous worlds of Judith McNaught, Julia Quinn, Nora Roberts and many more. My late blooming,
- [The Religious Work of Beverly Jenkins’s Black Historical Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/02/the-religious-work-of-beverly-jenkinss-black-historical-romance/) - Introduction During RomBkPod’s July 2020 interview of Beverly Jenkins, podcaster cohost Danielle Amos got emotional when it was her turn to speak: “This isn’t my question, but I just wanted to let you know that I was . . . staunchly . . . I’m getting teary-eyed thinking about it—but . . . I didn’t
- [The Activist Potential of Marian Keyes’ Irish Chick Lit](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/02/the-activist-potential-of-marian-keyes-irish-chick-lit/) - 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 theatre and performance at Newcastle University—both stumbled across Marian Keyes’ novels by accident. Rosalind was a student in Dublin when she spotted Sushi For Beginners and Last Chance Saloon while
- [Teaching Feminist Cultural Studies Using Popular Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/02/teaching-feminist-cultural-studies-using-popular-romance/) - 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 introductory first term of Gender Studies at Stockholm University in Sweden. The course gives an overview of central cultural studies ideas and concepts, and trains the students in performing their
- [Intimations of Romance Pedagogy from Recollections of Early Childhood](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/01/intimations-of-romance-pedagogy-from-recollections-of-early-childhood/) - It’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 edge of the Bard College campus. A mint patch scents the back yard where my mother is weeding in a blue Berkeley sweatshirt; just past the yard is the nursery
- [Editor's Note: Volume 13](https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/01/editors-note-volume-13/) - In early April, 2007, a group of American, European, and Australian scholars of popular culture dreamed up an academic organization, the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance, and a journal to promote its mission, the Journal of Popular Romance Studies. At the time, my only editorial experience was that of being edited—very well
- [From Romantic Gothic to Gothic Romance, With a Little Help from Twilight](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/06/from-romantic-gothic-to-gothic-romance-with-a-little-help-from-twilight/) - I 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 maybe gay men, and I was neither. I gravitated to horror, largely because it was the 1990s, and horror was everywhere: Stephen King and his imitators ruled every high-street bookstore.
- [Reader, I Included It: Reading Lists and Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/12/reader-i-included-it-reading-lists-and-romance/) - My engagement with romance when younger was not conscious despite my teenage reading (and watching) list consisting of paranormal romance. My choice was not framed by an understanding of genre since my naïve assumption was that romance was Mills & Boon and nothing more. (I was unable to work out how romance might connect to
- [Fantasy and Desire:  From my Mother’s Stack of Trashy Novels to an Experiment in Writing at Field’s Edge](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/06/fantasy-and-desire-from-my-mothers-stack-of-trashy-novels-to-an-experiment-in-writing-at-fields-edge/) - Here’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 we called “trashy novels”—her reading in the evening before going to sleep. I was a young teenager, and this was in Ottawa, Canada. It was the late 1970s, the early
- [Ruling the Court: Reflections on Midcentury Junior Novel Romances](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/01/ruling-the-court-reflections-on-midcentury-junior-novel-romances/) - I 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 or The Golden Barbarian and which featured cover illustrations of beautiful white women falling out of their dresses. My romance novels had tamer titles, such as Going on Sixteen, Senior
- [Reflections on <em>Lace</em> (1982) by Shirley Conran](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/01/reflections-on-lace-1982-by-shirley-conran/) - In 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 reading was Shirley Conran’s far less sleepy debut novel Lace. Following a recommendation from a friend, and anxious not to run out of reading material, I decided that Conran’s 741-page
- [Review: <em>Romantic Escapes: Post-Millennial Trends in Contemporary Popular Romance Fiction</em>, ed. by Irene Pérez Fernández and Carmen Pérez Ríu](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/12/review-romantic-escapes-post-millennial-trends-in-contemporary-popular-romance-fiction-ed-by-irene-perez-fernandez-and-carmen-perez-riu/) - Romantic Escapes: Post-Millennial Trends in Contemporary Popular Romance Fiction is a collection of essays aimed at expanding and exploring popular romance studies outside of the U.S. context. The introduction chapter provides an overview of romance studies by separating romance critiques into three distinct waves. The first wave of romance studies viewed the genre as a
- [<em>Forever Amber</em>, Censorship, and Popular Romance Studies](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/12/forever-amber-censorship-and-popular-romance-studies/) - It seems as if censorship is back in vogue. Truthfully, it never really left. I am preparing to teach a course called “Censorship and Obscenity,” and while the course is not focused on popular romance, I cannot help but see correspondences. I think here most obviously of attacks on YA literatures, which often themselves have
- [Review: <em>Abstinence Cinema: Virginity and the Rhetoric of Sexual Purity in Contemporary Film</em>, by Casey Ryan Kelly](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/12/review-abstinence-cinema-virginity-and-the-rhetoric-of-sexual-purity-in-contemporary-film-by-casey-ryan-kelly/) - Casey Ryan Kelly's 2016 monograph Abstinence Cinema: Virginity and the Rhetoric of Sexual Purity in Contemporary Film argues that "[P]opular cinema contributes to the ideological salience of a growing neoconservative movement that seeks to reestablish abstinence until marriage as a social and political imperative" (5). He calls this movement "abstinence culture." Kelly is particularly interested
- [Review: <em>Theorizing Ethnicity and Nationality in the Chick Lit Genre</em>, edited by Erin Hurt](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/03/review-theorizing-ethnicity-and-nationality-in-the-chick-lit-genre-edited-by-erin-hurt/) - More than two decades ago, chick lit was proclaimed the newest subgenre of romance, considered by some writers and critics so defiant of genre conventions that they would not count it as romance at all.[1] Since then, both the initial “unquestioning adoration of fans” and “the unmitigated disdain of critics” (Ferriss and Young, 1) have
- [Review: <em>The Trouble with Men: Reflections on Sex, Love, Marriage, Porn, and Power</em>, by David Shields](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/03/review-the-trouble-with-men-reflections-on-sex-love-marriage-porn-and-power-by-david-shields/) - The Trouble with Men: Reflections on Sex, Love, Marriage, Porn, and Power by David Shields is, in some ways, a lengthy meditation on marriage, being married, and all the foibles and fragilities of marriage, and yet, at times, doesn’t feel lengthy enough. This short book, at 160 pages, is full of ideas written in a
- [Review: <em>The New Literary Middlebrow: Tastemakers and Reading in the Twenty-First Century</em>, by Beth Driscoll](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/03/review-the-new-literary-middlebrow-tastemakers-and-reading-in-the-twenty-first-century-by-beth-driscoll/) - In Beth Driscoll’s The New Literary Middlebrow, she re-examines both the term middlebrow as well as its surrounding cultural practices in our contemporary moment. While middlebrow is a term that has effectively functioned as an insult, Driscoll argues that there is much value in it as a way of conceptualizing the shifting relationships among tastemakers,
- [Review: <em>Sentimental Readers: The Rise and Fall of a Disparaged Rhetoric</em>, by Faye Halpern](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/03/review-sentimental-readers-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-disparaged-rhetoric-by-faye-halpern/) - Faye Halpern’s monograph, Sentimental Readers: The Rise and Fall of a Disparaged Rhetoric, re-examines sentimentality and the sentimental novels of nineteenth-century America. This re-examination structures sentimentality not as an affect, but as a rhetoric. It is an attempt by Halpern to articulate what sentimentality is, rather than how it makes a reader feel. She says,
- [Review: <em>Happily Ever After: The Romance Story in Popular Culture</em>, by Catherine M. Roach](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/06/review-happily-ever-after-the-romance-story-in-popular-culture-by-catherine-m-roach/) - Catherine Roach’s book-length scholarly exploration, Happily Ever After: The Romance Story in Popular Culture (2016), is partly a memoir, partly scholarly analysis, and all a highly readable and engaging travel guide to Romancelandia. Positioning herself as an acafan and a woman in love, Roach marries scholarly critique with personal narrative of her own journey to
- [Review: <em>Love, Inc.: Dating Apps, the Big White Wedding, and Chasing the Happily Neverafter</em>, by Laurie Essig](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/06/review-love-inc-dating-apps-the-big-white-wedding-and-chasing-the-happily-neverafter-by-laurie-essig/) - In Love, Inc., Laurie Essig stakes the claim that “romance is a privatized solution to what in fact are structural and global matters” because it “lulls us into focusing on our love life rather than politics” (p. 2). To prove this, she uses multiple methods, which include an analysis of various cultural texts, mostly popular
- [Review: <em>Thrill of the Chaste: The Allure of Amish Romance Novels</em>, by Valerie Weaver-Zercher](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/06/review-thrill-of-the-chaste-the-allure-of-amish-romance-novels-by-valerie-weaver-zercher/) - Amish romances became a part of the mainstream romance industry with the commercial success of Beverly Lewis’ 1997-1998 trilogy The Heritage of Lancaster County (Cordell 2). Thrill of the Chaste vouches for the important position of this subgenre in popular romance scholarship. The author, Valerie Weaver-Zercher, defines the subgenre as “a tripartite literature of chastity:
- [Review: <em>In Sickness and in Health. Love, Disability, and a Quest to Understand the Perils and Pleasures of Interabled Romance</em>, by Ben Mattlin](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/08/review-in-sickness-and-in-health-love-disability-and-a-quest-to-understand-the-perils-and-pleasures-of-interabled-romance-by-ben-mattlin/) - “When it comes to sexuality in the disabled, dismissal is apt to turn into outright repression” states Nancy Mairs in her essay Sex and the Gimpy Girl (Mairs 2009: 8-9). Indeed, western society generally prefers to infantilize disabled people and think of them as asexual beings. Nothing is farther from the truth, shows the disability activist Ben
- [Review: <em>Publishing Romance: The History of an Industry, 1940s to the Present</em>, by John Markert](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/11/review-publishing-romance-the-history-of-an-industry-1940s-to-the-present-by-john-markert/) - Markert’s work focuses on the history of romance publishing in an American context, from a business perspective. His research, explained in a modest “Methodological Note,” draws on lengthy interviews with industry insiders, most especially management and editorial personnel, beginning in 1983-84 and then more recently in 2013-14, at all of the major romance publishing houses.
- [Review: <em>Return to Romance: The Strange Love Stories of Ogden Whitney</em>, edited by Dan Nadel and Frank Santoro](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/11/review-return-to-romance-the-strange-love-stories-of-ogden-whitney-edited-by-dan-nadel-and-frank-santoro/) - Romance comic books had already become popular by the time that Ogden Whitney started contributing to them. The genre appeared when Jack Kirby and Joe Simon created Young Romance for Prize Comics in 1947. Attempting to give women readers a comic of their own, Simon modeled the style and content of the comic on that
- [Review: <em>Men, Masculinities, and Popular Romance</em>, by Jonathan A. Allan](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/11/review-men-masculinities-and-popular-romance-by-jonathan-a-allan/) - In the Introduction to Men, Masculinities, and Popular Romance, Jonathan Allan asks, “What is the study of popular romance missing given how few scholars have studied these novels with the theoretical and methodological insights of masculinity studies?” Allan proposes to answer this question by wedding theory to genre, using some of the key insights of
- [Review: <em>The Reasons of Love</em>, by Harry G. Frankfurt](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/11/review-the-reasons-of-love-by-harry-g-frankfurt/) - Harry Frankfurt's, The Reasons of Love is based on compilation of lectures given in the year 2000 at Princeton University (Romanell-Phi Beta Kappa Lectures or under its general title "Some Thoughts about Norms, Love and the Goals of Life" lecture series) and University College London (Shearman Lectures) in 2001. In this short book, Frankfurt explores
- [Authors on <em>The Sheik</em>: A conversation with Liz Fielding](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/12/authors-on-the-sheik-a-conversation-with-liz-fielding/) - Liz Fielding is an award-winning author of romance. She has published over seventy romance novels since the early 1980s, as well as a guide to writing romance called Liz Fielding’s Little Book of Romance (2012). Winner of the RITA Best Traditional Romance and Best Short Contemporary Romance as well as the RNA Romance Prize, Fielding
- [On Teaching, Not Teaching, and Teaching <em>The Sheik</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/12/on-teaching-not-teaching-and-teaching-the-sheik/) - In the Beginning (Notes and Topics) In mid-July, 2005, I opened a new Word file and sketched out the reading list for ENG 285, my first class devoted to popular romance fiction. The quarter before I had been on leave, ostensibly to start a book on A. S. Byatt’s Possession: A Romance. On my return
- [Review essay on <em>The Sheik</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/12/review-essay-on-the-sheik/) - Introduction [End Page 1] The Sheik is an important text in the sheikh romance tradition. First published in 1919, E. M. Hull’s The Sheik has been labelled “the ur-romance novel of the twentieth century” (Regis 115) – a novel that has influenced not just subsequent sheikh romance, but all romance throughout the twentieth century (Regis
- [On Eligible Princes: The medieval modernity of sheikh romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/12/on-eligible-princes-the-medieval-modernity-of-sheikh-romance/) - In my interview with Linda Conrad, a U.S.-based desert romance author, she revealed that as a little girl she was most compelled by the classic Arabian Nights stories, and named Ali Baba as an example. She further intimated that, “[a]s a teenager, [my] first dreams of being with a man were of the dark, mysterious
- [In Defense of the Perverse: Reflections on <em>The Sheik</em> (George Melford, 1921)](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/12/in-defense-of-the-perverse-reflections-on-the-sheik-george-melford-1921/) - A pivotal sequence in The Sheik (George Melford, 1921), a screen adaptation of E.M. Hull’s novel, acts as a microcosm of the film. We see a lone figure on horseback in the middle of a vast desert; as the camera gets closer to the rider, a medium close-up reveals a man attired in flowing robes
- [The Depiction of Masculinity and Nationality in <em>The Sheik</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/12/the-depiction-of-masculinity-and-nationality-in-the-sheik/) - When The Sheik was first published in 1919 it became notorious for its sexual content. While it still holds an important place in the history of the English ‘rape novel’, there are other interesting aspects of the story: its imperialism, obviously, but also its take on masculinity and nationality. Elsewhere in this special issue, Diana’s
- [<em>The Sheik</em> and Modernism](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/12/the-sheik-and-modernism/) - The year 1919 saw the publication of T.S. Eliot’s “Poems” as well as his seminal essay “Tradition and the Individual Talent”; Virginia Woolf’s second novel Night and Day and her impressionist short story “Kew Gardens”; Hope Mirrlees radically experimental poem “Paris”; D.H. Lawrence’s “Bay: a book of poems”; the fourth novel in Dorothy Richardson’s Pilgrimage
- [Let’s Not Get Carried Away by <em>The Sheik</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/12/lets-not-get-carried-away-by-the-sheik/) - E. M. Hull’s The Sheik is, unquestionably, a bestseller which left its mark on popular romance fiction and “has stubbornly refused to pass into obscurity” (Turner 185). It is debatable, however, whether “The Sheik is the ur-romance novel of the twentieth century” (Regis, Natural 115). Indeed, it is possible its success was in fact due
- [Olive Skin, Chocolate Eyes: The Legacy of <em>The Sheik</em> on Descriptive Patterns of the Italian Romantic Hero in Harlequin Short Contemporaries](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/12/olive-skin-chocolate-eyes-the-legacy-of-the-sheik-on-descriptive-patterns-of-the-italian-romantic-hero-in-harlequin-short-contemporaries/) - Introduction [End Page 1] Critical analysis of the romance novel, so far, has mainly focused on gender politics. One of the few clusters of texts of critical discourse on the genre that, in a sustained manner, take into consideration the intertwined issues of gender, ethnicity and politics, paying due attention to the taxonomy of cultural
- [<em>Garçon Manqué</em>: A Queer Rereading (of) <em>The Sheik</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/12/garcon-manque-a-queer-rereading-of-the-sheik/) - Introduction [End Page 1] Near the end of E.M. Hull’s bestselling 1919 novel The Sheik, Ahmed Ben Hassan, an Arabian sheik who has abducted and raped the English Diana Mayo, lies delirious in his tent, recovering from rescuing Diana from a rival sheik. With his longtime friend, Raoul de Saint Hubert, sitting vigil by his
- [The Oriental Beast: <em>The Sheik</em> and Fairy Tales](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/12/the-oriental-beast-the-sheik-and-fairy-tales/) - Introduction [End Page 1] There is no doubt that the appeal of E.M. Hull’s The Sheik comes from its monstrous hero. Diana Mayo, the stonily independent heroine of this notorious romance, rides into the desert with a headstrong desire to travel without a chaperone and is kidnapped on route. Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan, a fearsome
- [Introduction to the special issue on <em>The Sheik</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/12/introduction-to-the-special-issue-on-the-sheik/) - Three cheers for E. M. Hull, who wrote That masterpiece, "The Sheik!” I proudly state I've read it eight- No, twenty times, this week. (Anthony) One hundred years ago, readers in Britain and North America were captivated by The Sheik. E. M. Hull’s novel, published in 1919 and adapted into a film in 1921, was
- [After “I Do”: Turkish Harlequin Readers Re-Imagine the Happy Ending](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/03/after-i-do-turkish-harlequin-readers-re-imagine-the-happy-ending/) - In the fall of 2011, with the support of a grant from Romance Writers of America, permission from Harlequin (HQN) Enterprises, and the enthusiastic support of Arda Gedik, who headed their Istanbul office, I boarded a plane to the Middle East with ambitious plans to conduct a study of Turkish HQN readers.[1] My goal was
- [Exploring His/Her Library: Reading and Books in Russian Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/03/exploring-his-her-library-reading-and-books-in-russian-romance/) - As scholars such as Laura Vivanco, Tamara Whyte, and Sarah Frantz and Eric Selinger have noted, metafictional motifs and literary references play an important role in many contemporary American and British romance novels (Vivanco 109-150; Frantz & Selinger 1-2 [End Page 1]; Whyte 218-228). Just as Tatiana explores Onegin’s library in Aleksandr Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin
- [A World Without Safe Words: Fifty Shades of Russian Grey](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/03/a-world-without-safe-words-fifty-shades-of-russian-grey/) - [End Page 1] While visiting St. Petersburg in the summer of 2015, I found myself browsing the shelves of Dom Knigi, the city’s premiere bookstore located on its grandest avenue, Nevskii Prospect. Rather than confine myself to the sizeable departments devoted to belles-lettres, literary studies, and the history of Russia, I decided to browse a
- [Time-Travel to P&P: Web-based Chinese Fanfic of Jane Austen](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/03/time-travel-to-pp-web-based-chinese-fanfic-of-jane-austen/) - Occupying a secure place in both “the solemn pantheon of classic English literature and the exuberantly commercial realm of pop culture” in the West (Yaffe xvii), Jane Austen’s works have also generated enthusiastic followers in Chinese cyberspace. Chinese fans do not [End Page 1] possess the same background knowledge demonstrated by those Western fans known
- [When Wuxia Met Romance: The Pleasures and Politics of Transculturalism in Sherry Thomas’s <em>My Beautiful Enemy</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/03/when-wuxia-met-romance-the-pleasures-and-politics-of-transculturalism-in-sherry-thomass-my-beautiful-enemy/) - That the romance genre has an international readership (in English and in translation) is well known, as is the fact that the texts are predominantly Anglo/white European/American in both their characters and settings. But a multicultural strain has grown stronger in recent decades, particularly in terms of one or both protagonists being African/African-American/Asian/Latinx/multiracial.[1] Sherry Thomas’s
- [Cultural Authenticity, the Family, and East Asian American Romance Novels](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/03/cultural-authenticity-the-family-and-east-asian-american-romance-novels/) - [End Page 1] In 2018 the film Crazy Rich Asians[1] was released to much fanfare and publicity, earning nominations at the Golden Globes and other awards, and grossing $174,532,921 in the United States and $238,532,921 worldwide (Box Office Mojo). Although criticized within Asian markets, especially in Singapore, for its erasure of non-ethnically Chinese characters from
- [Special Issue: Romance Fiction in the International Marketplace (Editors' Introduction)](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/03/introduction-to-the-special-issue-romance-fiction-in-the-international-marketplace/) - In April 2017, a group of romance novelists, bloggers, publisher representatives, and scholars from across three continents met in rural New England at Williams College for a three-day conference titled “Reading for Pleasure: Romance Fiction in the International Marketplace.”[1] The gathering fostered a broad conversation about the ways in which the genre of popular romance
- [“He Looks like He’s Stepped out of a Painting:” The Idealization and Appropriation of Italian Timelessness through the Experience of Romantic Love](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/03/he-looks-like-hes-stepped-out-of-a-painting-the-idealization-and-appropriation-of-italian-timelessness-through-the-experience-of-romantic-love/) - [End Page 1] This paper investigates two popular historical novels, Marina Fiorato’s The Glassblower of Murano (2008) and Anne Fortier’s Juliet (2010), in order to shed light on a discourse of pure origins and unbroken continuity that concerns ‘Italy’ as a cultural construct.[1] Within both narratives, ‘falling in love in Italy’ occasions the appropriation of
- [‘Some Fashions in Love’: Victoria Cross and the Contestation of Compulsory Monogamy](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/08/some-fashions-in-love-victoria-cross-and-the-contestation-of-compulsory-monogamy/) - In 1924, Aldous Huxley contributed an article to British Vogue entitled “A History of Some Fashions in Love”, which he opened with the following words: La Rochefoucauld […] remarked of love: that there are people who would never have been in love if they had never heard love talked about. […] We may [End Page
- [The Kitchen and Beyond: The Romantic Chronotope in Pakistani Popular Fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/08/the-kitchen-and-beyond-the-romantic-chronotope-in-pakistani-popular-fiction/) - Romance has long been associated with a wide range of often exotic locations, but the literature I explore in this article makes the most homely of domestic spaces – the kitchen – integral to the plot construction. The literature published in popular Pakistani Urdu[1] magazines, called “digests” by the consumers, is mostly comprised of plot-driven
- [Asexual Romance in an Allosexual World: How Ace-Spectrum Characters (and Authors) Create Space for Romantic Love](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/08/asexual-romance-in-an-allosexual-world-how-ace-spectrum-characters-and-authors-create-space-for-romantic-love/) - [End Page 1] Introduction This paper offers a snapshot of the current state of ace-spectrum romance fiction (ARF), focusing on how ace-spectrum main characters negotiate romantic relationships. In doing this, it reveals changing attitudes to one minority sexual orientation and explores how these can offer allosexuals an alternative perspective on societal and cultural issues. More
- [“And he absolutely fascinated me”: Masculinity and Virginity in Sherilee Gray’s <em>Breaking Him</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/11/and-he-absolutely-fascinated-me-masculinity-and-virginity-in-sherilee-grays-breaking-him/) - Readers of popular romance fiction are well aware of the history and legacy of the virgin as a common character in the genre. Titles of novels often boldly declare that a book is about a virgin, such as, The Timber Baron’s Virgin Bride by Daphne Clair, or The Prince’s Stolen Virgin by Maisey Yates, or
- [Love in a Cold Climate? Teaching Popular Romance at a Swedish University](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/12/love-in-a-cold-climate-teaching-popular-romance-at-a-swedish-university/) - Introduction What is it like to teach classes on popular romance fiction in a country where the genre has been more or less invisible for many years? What is it like to discuss a genre in a culture where, broadly speaking, romance books have not been reviewed, romance authors have not been visible in the
- [<em>Venetia</em>: Georgette Heyer’s Pastoral Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/12/venetia-georgette-heyers-pastoral-romance/) - “We have been dwelling in Arcadia, my green girl.” Damerel to Venetia. The historical-romance novels of Georgette Heyer (1902–74), written over a 50-year period from the 1920s to the 1970s, do not normally attract much serious scholarly attention, although Heyer’s life as a publicity-shy bestselling author, dependent on her fiction for her livelihood, has been
- [Editor’s Note: Volume 9](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/12/editors-note-volume-9/) - In my Editor’s Note for Volume 8 of the journal I promised that a number of changes and essays would roll out in 2020. Some of those changes are already visible, both in the new look for our “Volumes” page—general articles, special issues, roundtables, and book reviews separated out for easier browsing—and in the new
- [Review: <em>Love, Language, Place, and Identity in Popular Culture: Romancing the Other</em>, edited by María Ramos-García and Laura Vivanco](https://www.jprstudies.org/2021/09/review-love-language-place-and-identity-in-popular-culture-romancing-the-other-edited-by-maria-ramos-garcia-and-laura-vivanco/) - In recent years, there has been a considerable increase in critical questions on the lack of diversity in and the pervasive whiteness of popular romance fiction. The volume, Love, Language, Place, and Identity in Popular Culture: Romancing the Other, addresses some of these criticisms by utilizing the concept of “Otherness.” Specifically, how romance is “the
- [Literary Fiction from the Perspective of Romance: <em>Don’t Move</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2021/09/literary-fiction-from-the-perspective-of-romance-dont-move/) - University of Basel Although some of the most commercially successful and/or critically acclaimed works of literary fiction of the current century feature dominant romantic storylines, these have seldom been analysed in isolation. In this trilogy of short essays for the “Notes and Queries” section of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies, I read the construction
- [The Best Romance Dime Novels on the (French-Canadian) Market: The Promotional Strategies of Police-Journal, 1944-1963](https://www.jprstudies.org/2021/06/the-best-romance-dime-novels-on-the-french-canadian-market-the-promotional-strategies-of-police-journal-1944-1963/) - [End Page 1] Most work on dime novels has focused on their content, emphasizing how they convey as many stereotypes as subversive fantasies (Sullivan & Cushman Schurman; Milot, Deschamps & Godin; Bedore). Few studies, as Brown noted in 2006, have paid attention to the marketing strategies employed by the publishers. The present paper intends to
- [Parting the Curtain: The Virgin Heroine and the ‘Westoxified’ Villain in Contemporary Iranian Romance Novels](https://www.jprstudies.org/2021/06/parting-the-curtain-the-virgin-heroine-and-the-westoxified-villain-in-contemporary-iranian-romance-novels/) - Introduction As Farzaneh Milani accurately asserts, virginity has been “an absolute prerequisite for most heroines of classical Persian literature” (Words, Not Swords 34). In One Thousand and One Nights the king marries a virgin every night and, after sleeping with her, kills her in [End Page 1] the morning in order to prevent his new
- [Superwomen, Latte Dads and Feminist Alphas: Negotiations on Feminism in Contemporary Swedish Popular Romance Novels](https://www.jprstudies.org/2021/06/superwomen-latte-dads-and-feminist-alphas-negotiations-on-feminism-in-contemporary-swedish-popular-romance-novels/) - Acknowledgements: This article is part of a research project (2018-06798) financed by the Swedish research council, Vetenskapsrådet. [End Page 1] Popular romance has long existed in Sweden and “romantic pulp” has accounted for a large part of the Swedish paperback market through the second half of the twentieth century (Hemmungs Wirtén). The genre has mostly
- [Reading Response in Mary Balogh: A Critical Engagement](https://www.jprstudies.org/2021/08/reading-response-in-mary-balogh-a-critical-engagement/) - “Doormat” (31). “Airhead” (32). “Too Stupid to Live” (35). These are some of the categories of romance heroine Candy Tan and Sarah Wendell introduce in Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Novels (2009). All can be seen as subtypes of the damsel in distress, the stereotype most often associated with the romance
- [Editor’s Note: Volume 10](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/01/editors-note-volume-10/) - If these Editor’s Notes had titles, I’d be tempted to call this one “The Great Slowdown.” After the bumper crop of essays, reviews, and other offerings in Volume 9, this year’s edition of JPRS is far slimmer, in large part because each stage of the publishing process—receiving and vetting submissions, obtaining two double-blind peer reviews,
- [Review: <em>A Match Made in Heaven: British Muslim Women Write About Love and Desire</em>, ed. by Claire Chambers, Nafhesa Ali and Richard Phillips; <em>Storying Relationships: Young British Muslims Speak and Write about Sex and Love</em>, by Richard Phillips, Claire Chambers, Nafhesa Ali, Kristina Diprose and Indrani Karmakar](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/02/review-a-match-made-in-heaven-british-muslim-women-write-about-love-and-desire-ed-by-claire-chambers-nafhesa-ali-and-richard-phillips-storying-relationships-young-british-muslims-speak-and-writ/) - It’s not often that an academic research project successfully and meaningfully combines literary analysis, creative writing, and sociological research. These two publications – one a collection of creative writing by Muslim women (2020), the other an academic book (2021) – emerged from a UK funded research project, ‘Storying Relationships’, that asked “how young British Muslims,
- [Review: <em>Teaching Tainted Lit: Popular American Fiction in Today’s Classroom</em>, edited by Janet G. Casey](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/02/review-teaching-tainted-lit-popular-american-fiction-in-todays-classroom-edited-by-janet-g-casey/) - From the title to the overall framing of the collection, Teaching Tainted Lit: Popular American Fiction in Today’s Classroom (2015) leans into the contested status of popular fiction: “The notion that popular literature is tainted has a distinguished history” (1). In the introduction, Janet Casey notes, “This project breaks down the long-received binaries between ‘high’
- [Review: <em>Georgette Heyer, History and Historical Fiction</em>, ed. by Samantha J. Rayner and Kim Wilkins](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/02/review-georgette-heyer-history-and-historical-fiction-ed-by-samantha-j-rayner-and-kim-wilkins/) - Georgette Heyer, History and Historical Fiction (2021), edited by Samantha J. Rayner and Kim Wilkins, is a varied and pleasant read: the approaches are sometimes surprising and each chapter is rather light in style. Deeper inspection, however, proves it to be of limited use to popular romance scholars. The collection is derived from presentations first
- [Review: <em>After “Happily Ever After”: Romantic Comedy in the Post Romantic Age</em>, edited by Maria San Filippo](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/11/review-after-happily-ever-after-romantic-comedy-in-the-post-romantic-edited-by-maria-san-filippo/) - For decades popular media sources and scholars alike have opined the death of the romantic comedy genre. However, the new collection of essays on the romantic comedy, After “Happily Ever After”: Romantic Comedy in the Post Romantic Age, edited by Maria San Filippo, rejects these claims and explores what has happened to the genre in
- [Review: <em>Digital Love: Romance and Sexuality in Games</em>, ed. by Heidi McDonald](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/11/review-digital-love-romance-and-sexuality-in-games-ed-by-heidi-mcdonald/) - Digital Love is the first comprehensive introduction to the relatively new field of romance in video games. It is a collection of essays contributed by scholars, writers, designers, and developers who are all prominent within diverse areas of the games industry. While it primarily caters to games academia, it is an ideal starting point for
- [Review: <em>Why Women Read Fiction: The Stories of Our Lives</em>, by Helen Taylor](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/12/review-why-women-read-fiction-the-stories-of-our-lives-by-helen-taylor/) - Helen Taylor’s excellent book, Why Women Read Fiction: The Stories of Our Lives, reads as a homage to literature as it recounts her own love affair with fiction and her literary life journey. Alongside this, she also narrates the love affair that many women readers enjoy across multiple genres of fiction, including romance, science fiction,
- [The “Popular Romance Canon”: An Academic Librarian’s Response](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/12/the-popular-romance-canon-an-academic-librarians-response/) - At the opening keynote panel presentation at the 2013 Popular Romance Author Symposium (Princeton University, October 24, 2013), a member of the audience asked, “Who will we be studying in 100 years?” At the time my mental answer was “no one,” because academic libraries do not systematically collect popular romance novels. Unfortunately, my ongoing research
- [Isn’t It Iconic: Canonical Logics and the Romance Genre](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/11/isnt-it-iconic-canonical-logics-and-the-romance-genre/) - In 2014, cultural commentator Noah Berlatsky wrote in Salon that there wasn’t even a provisional consensus on which books were the best or essential romance novels … there was nothing that gave me a sense that certain books were clearly central, or respected, or worth reading.… There is, in short, no romance canon. He linked
- [Response to Eric Selinger’s “Cant and Canonicity”](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/11/response-to-eric-selingers-cant-and-canonicity/) - “Canon building is empire building. Canon defense is national defense. Canon debate, whatever the terrain, nature, and range (of criticism, of history, of the history of knowledge, of the definition of language, the universality of aesthetic principles, the sociology of art, the humanistic imagination), is the clash of cultures. And all of the interests are
- [Cant and Canonicity](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/11/cant-and-canonicity/) - Is there a popular romance canon? If any, then many, though maybe’s there’s none (though we all know, deep down, that there is): that, my friends, in a nutshell muddle, was the answer collectively given by Len Barot/Radclyffe, Beverly Jenkins, Nicole Peeler, Susan Ostrov Weisser, and myself at the February 2015 conference “What is Love?
- [Reading the Dick Pic Reparatively](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/10/reading-the-dick-pic-reparatively/) - Corresponding Author Dr Andrea Waling ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society Building NR6 La Trobe University Bundoora, VIC, AU a.waling@latrobe.edu.au +61 3 9479 8765lac Funding Dr Andrea Waling received funding from the School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University’s small grants scheme in 2016 for this
- [The Interactions of Risk, Trust, and Permanence on Individuals’ Motivations for Sexting: A Communication Privacy Management Perspective](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/10/the-interactions-of-risk-trust-and-permanence-on-individuals-motivations-for-sexting-a-communication-privacy-management-perspective/) - Sexting, or the creation and sharing of sexual messages, images, or videos via mediated communication (Burén and Lunde; Hasinoff), has become a normative practice (Madigan et al.). Some prior literature situates sexting as a form of deviant behavior (e.g., Lee et al.; Van Ouytsel et al.). However, people are motivated to sext for many reasons
- [An Exploration of Sexting as a Form of Infidelity in Consensually Non-Monogamous Relationships](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/10/an-exploration-of-sexting-as-a-form-of-infidelity-in-consensually-non-monogamous-relationships/) - With the advent of new communication technologies, the way individuals develop, maintain, and stray from romantic relationships is changing as well as the content of our communication in those interactions. Arguably, due to the public nature of social networking websites (SNS), sexual communication has become more commonplace on dating platforms and adult-centered websites such as
- [Introduction to the Special Issue on Sexting](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/10/introduction-to-the-special-issue-on-sexting/) - When Eftihia Mihelakis and Jonathan A. Allan first called for papers on “Sexting, Romance, and Intimacy,” they cast a wide net, inviting submissions on the many ways in which sexting has become a part of popular culture, whether as a cautionary tale or as a neutral or even quite positive part of contemporary “lover’s discourse.”
- [Black Romance Bibliography](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/black-romance-bibliography/) - Books, Articles, and Thesis/Dissertations Abdullah-Poulos, Layla. “The Stable Muslim Love Triangle – Triangular Desire in African American Muslim Romance Fiction.” Journal of Popular Romance Studies, November 2018, http://jprstudies.org/2018/11/the-stable-muslim-love-triangle-triangular-desire-in-african-american-muslim-romance-fictionby-layla-abdullah-poulos/. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020. Abdullah-Poulos, Layla. Muslim Love American Style: Islamic-American Hybrid Culture and Native-Born American Black Muslim Romance. MA Thesis, SUNY Empire State College, 2016. Adewunmi,
- [Conversation with Margo Hendricks/Elysabeth Grace](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/conversation-with-margo-hendricks-elysabeth-grace/) - This conversation with Margo Hendricks (Elysabeth Grace) originally appeared October 20, 2020 on the Black Romance Podcast, created and hosted by Julie E. Moody-Freeman: https://blackromancepodcast.libsyn.com/elysabeth-gracemargo-hendricks. * * * * * Margo Hendricks: Hi! Julie Moody-Freeman: Welcome! I’m so excited to talk with you. What I want to do then is I want to travel back
- [Conversation with Rochelle Alers](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/conversation-with-rochelle-alers/) - This conversation with Rochelle Alers originally appeared October 13, 2020 on the Black Romance Podcast, created and hosted by Julie E. Moody-Freeman: https://blackromancepodcast.libsyn.com/rochelle-alers. * * * * * Julie Moody-Freeman: Good morning. Rochelle Alers: Good morning to you. JMF: I’m so happy to see you. RA: Thank you. JMF: Before we get started, I need
- [Conversation with Gwendolyn Pough/Gwyneth Bolton](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/conversation-with-gwendolyn-pough-gwyneth-bolton/) - This conversation with Gwendolyn Pough (Gwyneth Bolton) originally appeared October 6, 2020 on the Black Romance Podcast, created and hosted by Julie E. Moody-Freeman: https://blackromancepodcast.libsyn.com/gwendolyn-poughgwyneth-bolton. * * * * * Julie Moody Freeman: I am pleased to have you here, with both hats that you wear, because I use your books in my class. I
- [Conversation with Rebekah Weatherspoon](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/conversation-with-rebekah-weatherspoon/) - This conversation with Rebekah Weatherspoon originally appeared September 29, 2020 on the Black Romance Podcast, created and hosted by Julie E. Moody-Freeman: https://blackromancepodcast.libsyn.com/rebekah-weatherspoon. * * * * * Julie Moody-Freeman: Hi Rebekah! Rebekah Weatherspoon: Hi. How are you? JMF: Thanks so much for being here with me. I’m Julie. RW: Thanks for having me. JMF:
- [Conversation with Alyssa Cole](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/conversation-with-alyssa-cole/) - This conversation with Alyssa Cole originally appeared September 22, 2020 on the Black Romance Podcast, created and hosted by Julie E. Moody-Freeman: https://blackromancepodcast.libsyn.com/alyssa-cole. * * * * * Julie Moody-Freeman: I am so happy to have Alyssa Cole with me. Welcome. Alyssa Cole: Thank you. Thank you for having me. JMF: So I want to
- [‘Dance Between Raindrops’: A Conversation with Vivian Stephens](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/dance-between-raindrops-a-conversation-with-vivian-stephens/) - This conversation with Vivian Stephens originally appeared September 8 and September 15, 2020 in two parts on the Black Romance Podcast, created and hosted by Julie E. Moody-Freeman: https://blackromancepodcast.libsyn.com/vivian-stephens-part-one; https://blackromancepodcast.libsyn.com/vivian-stephens-part-two. * * * * * PART ONE Julie Moody-Freeman: I have Vivian Stephens here with me. Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview.
- [Conversation with Beverly Jenkins](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/conversation-with-beverly-jenkins/) - This conversation with Beverly Jenkins originally appeared September 1, 2020 on the Black Romance Podcast, created and hosted by Julie E. Moody-Freeman: https://blackromancepodcast.libsyn.com/beverly-jenkins. * * * * * Julie Moody Freeman: It’s my pleasure to have you with me today. Beverly Jenkins: I’m so glad for the invite. JMF: I want to start from the
- [Conversation with Brenda Jackson](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/conversation-with-brenda-jackson/) - This conversation with Brenda Jackson originally appeared August 25, 2020 in two parts on the Black Romance Podcast, created and hosted by Julie E. Moody-Freeman: https://blackromancepodcast.libsyn.com/brenda-jackson-part-one; https://blackromancepodcast.libsyn.com/brenda-jackson-part-two. * * * * * Julie Moody-Freeman: I’m so happy to see you. I am Julie. Brenda Jackson: I’m Brenda. JMF: Yes, oh my god, I’ve waited my
- [Conversation with Sandra Kitt](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/conversation-with-sandra-kitt/) - This conversation with Sandra Kitt originally appeared August 18, 2020 on the Black Romance Podcast, created and hosted by Julie E. Moody-Freeman: https://blackromancepodcast.libsyn.com/sandra-kitt. * * * * * Julie Moody-Freeman: I am absolutely excited to have Sandra Kitt here. I’m happy for you to be here. I want to go back to the beginning and
- [Romance, Hip-Hop Feminism, and Black Love: From Theory to Praxis](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/romance-hip-hop-feminism-and-black-love-from-theory-to-praxis/) - “An expanded Black feminist theory is needed to contribute to the work of the Black public intellectual, especially the public intellectual dealing with Black popular cultures” (Gwendolyn Pough, Check It While I Wreck It 73) Introduction In 2004 Gwendolyn Pough, a Black Feminist, Rhetorician, and Hip-Hop scholar, wrote Check It While I Wreck It: Black
- [Reading the Black Romance:  Exploring Black Sexual Politics in the Romance Fiction of Rebekah Weatherspoon](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/reading-the-black-romance-exploring-black-sexual-politics-in-the-romance-fiction-of-rebekah-weatherspoon/) - I started reading romance novels around the same time that Sanaa Latham was asking, “When did you fall in love with hip hop?” in the 2002 film Brown Sugar. In the film, Latham portrays Sidney, a successful editor of a hip-hop magazine, who develops romantic feelings for her best friend, Dre, played by Taye Diggs.
- [Freedom’s Epilogue: Love as Freedom in Alyssa Cole’s Historical Novellas](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/freedoms-epilogue-love-as-freedom-in-alyssa-coles-historical-novellas/) - In 2021, novelist Alyssa Cole argued in an interview with NPR that “romance itself is political, particularly when you’re talking about diversity – who is considered a whole person, who is able to live their full lives” (Garcia-Navarro). As Cole notes, who gets to love and be loved in (romance) media is political, especially in
- [Against Odds: Beverly Jenkins’ <em>Indigo</em> and Black Historical Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/against-odds-beverly-jenkins-indigo-and-black-historical-romance/) - Invited to provide a companion essay to the Black Romance Podcast’s interview with romance author Beverly Jenkins, I was honored, nervous, and excited (fangirling actually). An acclaimed romance author of more than twenty historical romances, several contemporary romantic suspense novels, and the acclaimed Blessings series, Jenkins may rightly be viewed as a standard bearer for
- [Black Romance Authors and Community Cultural Wealth: A Case Study of Brenda Jackson’s Career](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/black-romance-authors-and-community-cultural-wealth-a-case-study-of-brenda-jacksons-career/) - The recent calls for #WeNeedDiverseRomance and #OwnVoices have created some change but not enough regarding the representation of people of color in the industry and in the books. Black romance authors are still tasked with working outside of the center and in the margins to create and find success. How did the pioneering Black cisgender
- [Her Bodyguard: Sandra Kitt’s <em>The Color of Love</em> as a foundational text for BWWM romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/her-bodyguard-sandra-kitts-the-color-of-love-as-a-foundational-text-for-bwwm-romance/) - The Bodyguard, a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan, circulated around Hollywood for decades. Written by Kasdan for Steve McQueen, the first actress thought to match McQueen’s star power was Diana Ross. They had disagreements about the billing and when McQueen died in 1980, the project moved on to Ryan O’Neal and Diana Ross. Ross lost interest
- [Vivian Lorraine Stephens: Romance Pioneer](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/vivian-lorraine-stephens-romance-pioneer/) - A Houston, Texas, native and graduate of Texas Southern University, Vivian Lorraine Stephens (1932-) has been a romance aficionado since her teens. In the 1940s, she read love stories in Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, and Redbook, and regarded Faith Baldwin as her “favorite writer” (Moody-Freeman, “Vivian Stephens-Part one”). It was not until the late
- [Introduction to the Special Issue on Black Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/introduction-to-the-special-issue-on-black-romance/) - How It Began Introductions are, by their nature, signposts. Signposts that guide readers, provide informational cadences, and justify what falls between page one and page conclusion. Introductions usually layout the theoretical and intellectual path of an author’s writing, whether in book or essay form. With scholarly collections, such as this one, an introduction usually provides
- [Freedom, Sincerity, and the Modern Woman in the Interwar Romances of Berta Ruck](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/02/freedom-sincerity-and-the-modern-woman-in-the-interwar-romances-of-berta-ruck/) - A prolific Welsh romance novelist of the early and mid-twentieth century, Berta Ruck wrote approximately a hundred novels between 1915 and 1970. Although her novels often conclude with a wedding or a proposal, Ruck is rarely content to let tradition prevent women from achieving self-fulfillment. Her novels written in the 1920s and 1930s are concerned
- [Confluent Love and the Evolution of Ideal Intimacy: Romance Reading in 1980 and 2016](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/confluent-love-and-the-evolution-of-ideal-intimacy-romance-reading-in-1980-and-2016/) - INTRODUCTION In the late 1970s and 1980s, there was a boom of academic interest in romance reading (Modleski; Radway "Women Read", Reading; Thurston; Christian-Smith; Fowler). Scholars wanted to understand why this apparently anti-feminist pastime persisted into a new age of gender equality (Barra; Reid Boyd). One of the most influential studies to emerge from this
- [Telling Gaps and Domestic Tyranny: Georgette Heyer’s Regency Romances](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/05/telling-gaps-and-domestic-tyranny-georgette-heyers-regency-romances/) - The significance of heterosexual romance as Georgette Heyer writes it characteristically unfolds within a familial context, emphasizing the growing cultural investment in the family as the foundation of economic, political, and cultural life that began in the nineteenth century after the Regency and continued during her writing life. The repetitive sameness of the fundamental structure
- [Critical Approaches to the Modern and Contemporary Anglophone Romance Novel (From <em>A Room with a View</em> to <em>Fifty Shades of Grey</em>)](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/06/critical-approaches-to-the-modern-and-contemporary-anglophone-romance-novel-from-a-room-with-a-view-to-fifty-shades-of-grey/) - Introduction The seminar Critical Approaches to the Modern and Contemporary Anglophone Romance Novel (From A Room with a View to Fifty Shades of Grey) was held at the Department of English of the University of Basel in the winter term of 2020. Nineteen undergraduate students attended it, which turned out to be a good thing,
- [Historical Accuracy, Racism, Courtney Milan, and The Duke Who Didn’t Conform to Genre Norms](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/06/historical-accuracy-racism-courtney-milan-and-the-duke-who-didnt-conform-to-genre-norms/) - When Janice Radway conducted her now-famous study of romance readers in the early 1980s, she found that all her respondents “cited the educational value of romances,” and she therefore concluded that they have a “penchant for geographical and historical accuracy” (108). Four decades later, another survey of romance readers found that they were still concerned
- [Caring for the Self. A Case-Study on Sociocultural Aspects of Reading Chick Lit](https://www.jprstudies.org/2022/06/caring-for-the-self-a-case-study-on-sociocultural-aspects-of-reading-chick-lit/) - 1. INTRODUCTION As people are increasingly reaching for electronic devices instead of books to spend their leisure time, this has resulted in a number of stakeholders becoming increasingly interested in understanding the dynamics of the book market, including the varying popularity of literary genres. One genre that particularly stands out in the continuously, albeit to
- [Editor’s Note: Volume 11](https://www.jprstudies.org/2023/02/editors-note-volume-11/) - Volume 11 of JPRS is an issue to remember. Every section of the journal ended up full-to-bursting, and thanks to the hard work of scholars, peer reviewers, copyeditors, guest-editors, and our masthead staff—hats off to Sarah Ficke, our Web Editor, for what must have felt like endless rounds of manuscript processing!—we are able to offer
- [Review: <em>The Gothic Romance Wave: A Critical History of the Mass Market Novels, 1960-1993</em>, by Lori A. Paige](https://www.jprstudies.org/2023/02/review-the-gothic-romance-wave-a-critical-history-of-the-mass-market-novels-1960-1993-by-lori-a-paige/) - Swirling fog surrounds the young woman as she makes her way along the threadlike path that leads to the tall iron gates that rise toward the inky sky, their angry spikes silhouetted against an eerie full moon. (1) Thus begins Lori A. Paige’s homage to the mass market gothic romance novels of the 1960s onwards,
- [Review: <em>Discursos e Identidades en la Ficción Romántica: Visiones Anglófonas de Madeira y Canarias</em> / <em>Discourses and Identities in Romance Fiction: Anglophone Visions from Madeira and the Canaries</em>, ed. by María Isabel González Cruz](https://www.jprstudies.org/2023/02/review-discursos-e-identidades-en-la-ficcion-romantica-visiones-anglofonas-de-madeira-y-canarias-discourses-and-identities-in-romance-fiction-anglophone-visions-from-madeira-and-the-canaries-ed/) - The literary convention that construes and represents the south of Europe as a reverse signifier to British civilization—a constellation of unique characteristics at the opposite spectrum of its values and ethos—can be characterized as a discursive formation running parallel to the European discourse on the Orient. Both traditions rest on dichotomizing discursive patterns relying on
- [Review: <em>Dubcon: Fanfiction, Power, and Sexual Consent</em>, by Milena Popova](https://www.jprstudies.org/2023/04/review-dubcon-fanfiction-power-and-sexual-consent-by-milena-popova/) - Dubcon: Fanfiction, Power, and Sexual Consent is a monograph by Milena Popova. This is Popova’s second book, after Sexual Consent, which was published as part of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series in 2019. Dubcon is based on Popova’s doctoral thesis “Slight dub-con but they both wanted it hardcore”: Erotic fanfiction as a form of
- [Review: <em>Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex</em>, by Angela Chen, and <em>Asexual Erotics: Intimate Readings of Compulsory Sexuality</em>, by Ela Przybylo](https://www.jprstudies.org/2023/04/review-ace-what-asexuality-reveals-about-desire-society-and-the-meaning-of-sex-by-angela-chen-and-asexual-erotics-intimate-readings-of-compulsory-sexuality-by-ela-przybylo/) - At first sight, it is perhaps unclear why popular romance scholars should invest in these two books in the face of other demands on our time. While a few romance novels with asexual lead characters (as well as ace-adjacent orientations, such as demisexual and gray-sexual) are being (self)published, they remain a tiny sub-genre within the
- [Review: <em>The Rise of American Girls’ Literature</em>, by Ashley N. Reese](https://www.jprstudies.org/2023/04/review-the-rise-of-american-girls-literature-by-ashley-n-reese/) - Dr. Ashley Reese’s The Rise of American Girls’ Literature contributes to a resurgence in scholarship about girlhood in contemporary realistic fiction texts, like Kate Harper’s Out of Reach: The Ideal Girl in American Girls’ Serial Literature (2020) and Julie Pfeiffer’s Transforming Girls: The Work of Nineteenth-Century Adolescence (2021). Reese focuses on the time period between
- [Review: <em>New Adult Fiction</em>, by Jodi McAlister](https://www.jprstudies.org/2023/04/review-new-adult-fiction-by-jodi-mcalister/) - Jodi McAlister’s New Adult Fiction traces the history of the new adult publishing category since its inception in 2009. This Cambridge Element book provides one of the only comprehensive looks at New Adult literature since there is very little scholarship on its history other than Amy Pattee’s 2017 Children’s Literature Association Quarterly article. Unfortunately, though,
- [Review: <em>Hispanicisms in Romance Fiction: An Annotated Glossary</em>, by María-Isabel González-Cruz](https://www.jprstudies.org/2023/12/review-hispanicisms-in-romance-fiction-an-annotated-glossary-by-maria-isabel-gonzalez-cruz/) - As its title suggests, most of María-Isabel González-Cruz's Hispanicisms in Romance Fiction: An Annotated Glossary takes the form of a detailed dictionary-like inventory of Spanish words found in corpus of romance novels written in English. This glossary is preceded by a short introduction which makes a strong case for the study of hispanicisms in general
- [Literary Fiction from the Perspective of Romance: <em>Normal People</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2023/02/literary-fiction-from-the-perspective-of-romance-normal-people/) - Sally Rooney’s Normal People (2018) is a refined, touching, and quintessentially current coming-of-age narrative that recounts the romantic encounters of two young people, Marianne and Connell, who experience the extraordinary luck (and misfortune?) of finding one another before becoming adults.[1] The novel explores these encounters and the effect they have on the psyches and aspirations
- [Genre-savvy Protagonists in Queer YA Rom-coms](https://www.jprstudies.org/2023/02/genre-savvy-protagonists-in-queer-ya-rom-coms/) - A version of this article was presented at Concepts in Popular Genre Fiction, Deakin University, 6 – 8 December 2021 LGBTQIA+ characters (and their quests for love) are increasingly appearing in YA fiction, and more specifically in YA romantic comedies. The rom-com, particularly in its most mainstream and familiar Hollywood form, has long been rooted
- [A Black Bridget Jones? Candice Carty-Williams’s <em>Queenie</em> (2019): Challenging Discourses of Race and Gender in the Chick-Lit Genre](https://www.jprstudies.org/2023/02/a-black-bridget-jones-candice-carty-williamss-queenie-2019-challenging-discourses-of-race-and-gender-in-the-chick-lit-genre/) - 1. Introduction: Black British Chick Lit? Candice Carty-Williams’s best-selling debut novel Queenie (2019) has been marketed and reviewed as the story of a Black Bridget Jones. This comparison has been challenged by readers and critics alike. Afua Hirsch, for instance, pointed out that the book “tells a far deeper story than the one it has
- [Nobody Puts Romance Fiction in the Corner: Public Librarians in New South Wales and Their Dalliance with Romance Fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/2023/05/nobody-puts-romance-fiction-in-the-corner-public-librarians-in-new-south-wales-and-their-dalliance-with-romance-fiction/) - Introduction A challenge in exploring the relationships between librarians, library practices, and romance fiction is that there is no strong conceptual frame on which to base it. This study[i] finds the metaphor of the dalliance a useful one through which to explore these relationships. The seminal work of Pamela Regis in identifying the “eight essential
- [“Do you think I haven’t paid for what I did?”: Rape in the Mills & Boon Romantic Novels of Penny Jordan](https://www.jprstudies.org/2023/11/do-you-think-i-havent-paid-for-what-i-did-rape-in-the-mills-boon-romantic-novels-of-penny-jordan/) - This article will explore the works of Penny Jordan (1946-2011) with a specific focus on her use of rape as a trope within her romantic novels written for Mills & Boon. Jordan had an incredibly prolific writing career for Mills & Boon. She wrote 187 novels for the company, mainly in the Modern Romance line.
- [Editor’s Note: Volume 12](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/02/editors-note-volume-12/) - At the end of June, 2023, the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR) held its first in-person conference in five years. The atmosphere was festive; the participants, diverse, joining us in Birmingham, UK (in the flesh or by Zoom) from five continents and an impressive range of disciplines and areas of interest.
- [Review: <em>Love and Space in Contemporary African Diasporic Women’s Writing: Making Love, Making Worlds</em>, by Jennifer Leetsch](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/01/review-love-and-space-in-contemporary-african-diasporic-womens-writing-making-love-making-worlds-by-jennifer-leetsch/) - Using a tripartite structure, Jennifer Leetsch describes and analyses diasporic novels, poems and performances along the axes of space, love and textuality in her new book Love and Space in Contemporary African Diasporic Women’s Writing: Making Love, Making Worlds. Leetsch is an expert in Anglophone literature and cultural studies who explores contemporary (diasporic) literature, culture
- [Review: <em>1960s Gay Pulp Fiction: The Misplaced Heritage</em>, ed. by Drewey Wayne Gunn and  Jaime Harker](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/02/review-1960s-gay-pulp-fiction-the-misplaced-heritage-ed-by-drewey-wayne-gunn-and-jaime-harker/) - Scholars of gay fiction face difficulty in obtaining primary material from certain historical periods and publication channels (which is an issue that is and will be urgent for popular romance scholars as well, as mentioned in this JPRS Note by Jonathan A. Allan). Only some of those primary works are available in libraries scattered around
- [Review: <em>Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight: A Philosophical Exploration</em>, ed. by Hans Maes and Katrien Schaubroeck](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/05/review-before-sunrise-before-sunset-before-midnight-a-philosophical-exploration-ed-by-hans-maes-and-katrien-schaubroeck/) - It is highly doubtful that enthusiasts of romantic cinema would consider Richard Linklater’s trilogy, Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), Before Midnight (2013) to be their top choice. In fact, looking at the scholarship, one is hard pressed to find texts that consider the films to be part of the genre. Nevertheless, as I hope
- [Review: <em>South Asian Gothic: Haunted Cultures, Histories, and Media</em>, ed. by Katarzyna Ancuta and Deimantas Valančiūnas](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/07/review-south-asian-gothic-haunted-cultures-histories-and-media-ed-by-katarzyna-ancuta-and-deimantas-valanciunas/) - In South Asian Gothic: Haunted Cultures, Histories, and Media, editors Katarzyna Ancuta and Deimantas Valančiūnas, alongside thirteen fellow “expert scholars of film, literature, and cultural studies of South Asia,” strive to create what should be recognized as the most successful attempt to introduce the academic world to the Gothic films and folklore of South Asia
- [Saying “I Don’t”: Queer Romance in the Post–Marriage Equality World](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/03/saying-i-dont-queer-romance-in-the-post-marriage-equality-world/) - In the dramatic climax to the movie Bros (2022), Bobby (Billy Eichner) rushes off the stage at a gala he is hosting for the opening of the LGBTQ+ History Museum. He runs to Aaron (Luke Macfarlane), from whom he’s been broken up for several months. They kiss and say, “I love you.” Then Bobby searches
- [Feeling Judged: Reflections on Pornography and Romance from a Minotaur Milking Farm](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/03/feeling-judged-reflections-on-pornography-and-romance-from-a-minotaur-milking-farm/) - In the Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance (2021) Jonathan A. Allan stated that “[o]ne unresolvable conundrum, or at least one that has ongoing permanence, is the relationship between pornography and popular romance. Future work should continue to think about this relationship” (Allan, “Gender and Sexuality” 446). This work seems particularly relevant given that currently
- [“Condoms Break. Birth Control Fails.” Heroes in the Procreative Realm and Jessica Scott’s “Anything for You”](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/05/condoms-break-birth-control-fails-heroes-in-the-procreative-realm-and-jessica-scotts-anything-for-you/) - Contraceptives and safer sex practices in popular romance fiction have been a hot topic with a variety of authors, commentators, and scholars commenting on their role (Quilliam 2011; Diekman, McDonald and Gardner 2000; Iqbal 2014; Rader, Hovick and Bigsby 2021; Lim, Hellard and Horyniak 2018). Questions that arise about condoms and other safer sex practices
- [Courting Tragedy: Romance and the Liberal Redemption of Japanese American Mass Incarceration](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/06/courting-tragedy-romance-and-the-liberal-redemption-of-japanese-american-mass-incarceration/) - Takeo (Tak) Tanaka confronts wartime tragedy in Danielle Steel’s Silent Honor. Franklin Roosevelt has issued Executive Order 9066, resulting in the exile and mass incarceration of all West Coast Japanese Americans, citizens and aliens alike. Caught in the resulting chaos, the political science professor must sell his home at great financial loss, leave his job
- [A Little City with a Big Heart: Localising the Chick-lit Formula in Kate O’Keeffe’s Wellywood Romantic Comedy Series](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/07/a-little-city-with-a-big-heart-localising-the-chick-lit-formula-in-kate-okeeffes-wellywood-romantic-comedy-series/) - “New Zealand is a country that constantly tells itself who it is. Every single day there are messages and statements to affirm that this is a great country” Claudia Bell, Inventing New Zealand (1996, 1) 1. Introduction Since the publication of Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary (1996) and Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City (1996),
- [Came for the Smut, Stayed by Consent: Desire and Consent in Sarah J. Maas’s Fictional Worlds](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/08/came-for-the-smut-stayed-by-consent-desire-and-consent-in-sarah-j-maass-fictional-worlds/) - In the early 2000s and 2010s, young adult romance, especially those tied to the supernatural, became quite popular. Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments, and Richelle’s Mead’s Vampire Academy contain women protagonists in “soul mate” relationships, often with controlling men. During the same period, E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey emerged as a
- ["Oh, my friend, those weren’t angels": Trauma, Recovery and Folklore in <em>The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal</em> and <em>Spectred Isle</em> by KJ Charles](https://www.jprstudies.org/2024/08/oh-my-friend-those-werent-angels-trauma-recovery-and-folklore-in-the-secret-casebook-of-simon-feximal-and-spectred-isle-by-kj-charles/) - As Robert Eaglestone says in his chapter in The Routledge Companion to Literature and Trauma, “some critics have argued or even assumed that trauma can only be represented in complex, challenging and, even perhaps, modernist or postmodernist forms” (290). Although the popular romance genre is often perceived as insignificant in literary terms, various kinds of
- [The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Popular Romance Studies:  What is it, and why does it matter?](https://www.jprstudies.org/2013/06/the-scholarship-of-teaching-and-learning-popular-romance-studies-what-is-it-and-why-does-it-matter-by-lisa-fletcher/) - Since joining the editorial team of JPRS as Teaching and Learning Editor in late 2012, I have had numerous conversations with scholars about the scope and purpose of this section that have raised some important (and difficult) questions. The main questions for those who are already active in the research community of popular romance studies
- [Special Issue: Love and Rock (Editors' Introduction)](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/10/special-issue-love-and-rock-editors-introductionby-claude-chastagner-mark-duffett/) - Four years ago, during a discussion, my friend Mark Duffett of Chester University and I noticed that a central aspect of rock music (the term is taken here in its broadest meaning) was too often neglected by the press as by academia: the place occupied by love songs. The dominant discourse more readily associates rock
- [<b>Special Issue: Critical Love Studies (Editors' Introduction)</b>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2017/04/special-issue-critical-love-studies-editors-introductionby-amy-burge-and-michael-gratzke/) - The Journal of Popular Romance Studies started out as an interdisciplinary journal exploring popular romance fiction, mostly in print. It has steadily been expanding its remit to include “the logics, institutions, and social practices of romantic love in global popular culture.” Recent special issues have thrown a light on romantic love in regional contexts such
- [<b>Special Issue: Queering Popular Romance (Editors' Introduction)</b>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2016/07/special-issue-queering-popular-romance-editors-introductionby-andrea-wood-and-jonathan-a-allan/) - In 1997, Kay Mussell called upon scholars of popular romance “to incorporate analysis of lesbian and gay romances into our mostly heterosexual models” (12). Today, closing in on two decades later, that challenge has yet to be met (beyond a few examples here and there). Although print and digital venues for LGBTQ romance have proliferated,
- [An Interview with Susan Elizabeth Phillips](https://www.jprstudies.org/2015/08/an-interview-with-susan-elizabeth-phillipsby-eric-murphy-selinger/) - When Susan Elizabeth Phillips began writing and publishing romance novels in the early 1980s, the American market was dominated by the blockbuster historical romances that followed in the wake of Kathleen Woodiwiss’s The Flame and the Flower (Avon, 1972) and Rosemary Rogers’s Sweet Savage Love (Avon, 1974) and by contemporary-set “glitz and glamour” sagas, a
- [Special Issue: Romancing the Library (Editor’s Introduction)](https://www.jprstudies.org/2015/08/special-issue-romancing-the-library-editors-introductionby-crystal-goldman/) - Popular romance collections in libraries of all kinds—public, academic, and special—have faced their fair share of controversies. These can be as simple as whether or not a particular title is owned by the library, public or patron reactions to that title, and librarian responses to those reactions. Romance novels in libraries are often in high
- [Nothing But Good Times Ahead: A Special Forum on Jennifer Crusie (Editor’s Introduction)](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/04/nothing-but-good-times-ahead-a-special-forum-on-jennifer-crusie-editors-introduction/) - “Nothing But Good Times Ahead” marks the first of what will be an ongoing series of Special Features at the Journal of Popular Romance Studies: a gathering of academic essays focused on a single author, a common topic, a particular region, a single convention, etc., from the vast array of global popular romance culture.[1] Such
- [Romantic Love in Mexico and Latin America: An Interview with Enrique Serna](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/02/romantic-love-in-mexico-and-latin-america-an-interview-with-enrique-sernaby-michael-k-schuessler/) - Enrique Serna (Mexico City, 1959) is one of Mexico’s most celebrated living writers. Although he is best known for his novels of historical fiction, for example, El seductor de la patria (1999) and Ángeles del abismo (2004), Serna’s literary career began in 1987 with the publication of Señorita México, a crude portrait of an erstwhile beauty
- [Special Issue:  Love in Latin American Popular Culture (Editor’s Introduction)](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/02/special-issue-love-in-latin-american-popular-culture-editors-introductionby-david-william-foster/) - By one of those quirks that make language so fascinating, in Spanish the word romance, although in common use to refer to a love story, is derived from the same word with an older meaning: romancero, which means something like “popular [song] ballad.” The connection lies in the way that these ballads “in the colloquial
- [Special Issue: The Popular Culture of Romantic Love in Australia (Editor’s Introduction)](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/special-issue-the-popular-culture-of-romantic-love-in-australia-editors-introductionby-hsu-ming-teo/) - A couple of years ago I put out a call for papers for a project on the popular culture of romantic love in Australia. The aim of the project was to understand how Australians’ beliefs, ideals, and practices of romantic love have changed over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; how Australians have
- [Writing the Happy Ever After: An Interview with Anne Gracie](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/writing-the-happy-ever-after-an-interview-with-anne-gracieby-lisa-fletcher/) - Anne Gracie is one of Australia’s most awarded popular historical romance writers and a past president of the Romance Writers of Australia (2006 - 2008). Her first novel Gallant Waif, published by Harlequin, was a finalist for the RITA Award for best first book in 2000 and won the Romance Writers of America (RWA) National
- [The African American Historical Romance: An Interview with Beverly Jenkins](https://www.jprstudies.org/2010/08/interview-beverly-jenkins-by-rita-b-dandridge/) - The African American historical romance developed in nineteenth-century America but did not gain popularity as a genre until the twentieth century. Set in a specific historic time—usually during slavery, Reconstruction, or post-Reconstruction—the African American historical romance emphasizes tensions between two opposing forces, as it employs romantic elements of adventure and love. Because slavery and racism
- [Interview: Joanna Russ](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/03/interview-joanna-russ/) - Noted science fiction author Joanna Russ is perhaps most famous for her provocative novels The Female Man (1975) and We Who Are About To (1977), and her 1983 Hugo Award winning short story "Souls." Others know Russ primarily for her feminist criticism collected in works like Magic Mommas, Trembling Sisters, Puritans & Perverts (1985), and
- [Note from the Field: Reflecting on Romance Novel Research: Past, Present and Future](https://www.jprstudies.org/2013/06/note-from-the-field-reflecting-on-romance-novel-research-past-present-and-future-by-a-dana-menard/) - In 2011, I co-authored an article in the journal Sexuality & Culture describing a study on sexual scripts in romance novels. The paper was entitled, “‘Whatever the approach, Tab B still fits into Slot A’: Twenty years of sex scripts in romance novels” (Ménard & Cabrera, 2011). Shortly after the article appeared, a discussion about
- [Romance Fiction in the Archives](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/05/romance-fiction-in-the-archivesby-kecia-ali/) - Note: This piece was drafted in late 2017. The ongoing exploration of diversity and racism in romance writing, publishing, and award-giving attests to the potential importance of archival sources discussed below. In May 2017, the Popular Culture Association (PCA), in coordination with the Ray and Pat Browne Popular Culture Library (PCL) at Bowling Green State
- [Is Edward Cullen a “good” boyfriend? Young men talk about <em>Twilight</em>, masculinity and the rules of (hetero)romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2017/12/is-edward-cullen-a-good-boyfriend-young-men-talk-about-twilight-masculinity-and-the-rules-of-heteroromanceby-christina-vogels/) - Introduction The popular romance is a pervasive and ubiquitous part of popular culture (Roach 2), which has been critically and rigorously analysed by a wide range of scholars. Some scholars argue that the popular romance oppresses women (and the notion of femininity) by depicting a subservient heroine whose ultimate goal is to marry her hero
- [There Are Six Bodies in This Relationship: An Anthropological Approach to the Romance Genre](https://www.jprstudies.org/2010/08/there-are-six-bodies-in-this-relationship-an-anthropological-approach-to-the-romance-genre-by-laura-vivanco-and-kyra-kramer/) - Modern romance novels written in English have a pedigree which stretches back to the eighteenth century: Harlequins can be traced back through the work of Charlotte Brontë and Jane Austen to the sentimental novel and ultimately […] to the novels of Samuel Richardson, whose Pamela is considered by many scholars to be the first British
- [Editor's Note: Issue 1.1](https://www.jprstudies.org/2010/08/editors-note-issue-1-1/) - Is there an academic field of Popular Romance Studies? Certainly scholars from many disciplines have studied the ways that love is represented in—and has been reshaped by—global popular culture. Serious, peer-reviewed work has been published on the politics, aesthetics, and appeal of romance in romance novels, romantic comedies, manga, telenovelas, and digital media. The on-line
- [Pedagogy Report: Embedding Popular Romance Studies in Undergraduate English Units: Teaching Georgette Heyer’s <em>Sylvester</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/03/pedagogy-report-embedding-popular-romance-studies-in-undergraduate-english/) - Introduction This paper outlines one model for introducing popular romance studies to undergraduate English programs: teaching romance texts and topics alongside canonical and contemporary literary texts. This “embedding” approach has clear advantages over the teaching of “specialist” popular romance units, not least because of its flexibility in relation to diverse curricula. We discuss one recent
- [The Heroine as Reader, the Reader as Heroine: Jennifer Crusie’s <em>Welcome to Temptation</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/04/the-heroine-as-reader-the-reader-as-heroine-jennifer-crusies-welcome-to-temptation-by-kate-moore-and-eric-murphy-selinger/) - In July, 2011, an opinion piece in the “consumer commentary” of the British Journal of Family Planning, Reproduction, and Health Care sparked a brief flurry of worry and debate on both sides of the Atlantic about the pernicious effects that reading popular romance fiction might have on women’s contraceptive choices. On inspection, the essay turned
- [Queering the Romantic Heroine: Where Her Power Lies](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/10/queering-the-romantic-heroine-where-her-power-lies-by-katherine-e-lynch-ruth-e-sternglantz-and-len-barot/) - Five years ago, a letter to the editor of the Romance Writers Report (a monthly publication issued by the Romance Writers of America), suggested that “romance” should be defined as between one man and one woman. Specifically, the writer asserted that “what [has] brought romance fiction to its present level of success is a collection
- [Creating a Popular Romance Collection in an Academic Library](https://www.jprstudies.org/2015/08/creating-a-popular-romance-collection-in-an-academic-libraryby-sarah-e-sheehan-and-jen-stevens/) - [End Page 1] Introduction “Who will we be studying in 100 years?” - question from the audience at the opening keynote panel presentation at the 2013 Popular Romance Author Symposium (Princeton University, October 24, 2013) Over the past few decades, there has been a growing critical mass of scholarly interest in the study of popular
- [Love in the Digital Library: A Search for Racial Heterogeneity in E-Books](https://www.jprstudies.org/2015/08/love-in-the-digital-library-a-search-for-racial-heterogeneity-in-e-booksby-renee-bennett-kapusniak-and-adriana-mccleer/) - [End Page 1] Introduction and Background The romance genre is one of the bestselling genres in the United States (US). It is also the largest genre read in e-book (electronic book) format in the consumer market (RWA). An e-book format, for the purpose of this study, is defined as Adobe PDF, Mobipocket, Adobe EPUB, OverDrive
- [PLOTS: an art installation](https://www.jprstudies.org/2017/04/plots-an-art-installationby-angelika-bock/) - PLOTS focuses on three (heterosexual) love stories and on the differences between the initial perception of an experience and its subsequent retelling. For this three-part sound installation the artist requested each of the partners to describe turning points in their mutual relationship. In an abridged form, the descriptions given by each pair were subsequently passed
- [The boys’ love phenomenon: A literature review](https://www.jprstudies.org/2017/04/the-boys-love-phenomenon-a-literature-reviewby-agnes-zsila-and-zsolt-demetrovics/) - [End Page 1] Acknowledgements Ágnes Zsila was supported by the New National Excellence Program of the Ministry of Human Capacities. This study was supported by the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (Grant number: K111938). Introduction to the boys’ love phenomenon The increasing popularity of boys’ love media has received growing attention in
- [Le punk français rêve-t-il en rose ?</br>Does French punk dream "en rose?"](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/10/le-punk-francais-reve-t-il-en-rose-by-luc-robene-and-solveig-serre/) - [End Page 1] « Mon speed c’est l’amour » chante en 1979 le groupe punk français Starshooter. Gageure ? Provocation ? Si la chanson des Lyonnais mérite précisément que l’on s’y arrête, c’est que le punk ne semble pas constituer a priori le terreau artistique le plus favorable au développement du thème amoureux. Inscrit dans la désespérance des jours
- [Afterlife of the Romance Hero: Readers’ Reproduction of Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2019/10/afterlife-of-the-romance-hero-readers-reproduction-of-romance/) - The Romance Hero The hero is one of the main defining elements in the romance novel. Falling in love with him is the story. “The hero,” Mary Putney writes, “is the most crucial character in a romance, the linchpin who holds the story together” (100). Without the hero, there would be no story. Also, commenting
- [Editor’s Note: Volume 8](https://www.jprstudies.org/2020/01/editors-note-volume-8/) - A great deal is happening behind the scenes at the Journal of Popular Romance Studies, with a number of changes (and essays!) waiting to roll out in 2020. Because of that ongoing work, Volume 8 of the journal is somewhat smaller than our previous volumes, but what it lacks in total numbers it more than
- [Note from the Book Review Editor](https://www.jprstudies.org/2013/06/note-from-the-book-review-editor/) - Popular Romance Studies is a new enough field that the canon of relevant scholarship has yet to be established. The expansive, interdisciplinary nature of the field, which takes as its purview “romantic love and its representations in global popular culture, now and in the past,” makes it even more urgent for popular romance scholars to
- [Review: <em>Northrop Frye’s Notebooks on Romance</em>, by Northrop Frye](https://www.jprstudies.org/2010/08/review-northrop-frye’s-notebooks-on-romance-by-northrop-frye/) - Northrop Frye (1912-1991) remains one of the most cited and broadly useful theorists of the romance as a literary genre, not only in its form as an amorous novel but also in the tradition of the adventure story, historical novel, science fiction, and so on. Frye’s major works on genre—Anatomy of Criticism and The Secular
- [Review: <em>Historical Romance Fiction: Heterosexuality and Performativity</em>, by Lisa Fletcher](https://www.jprstudies.org/2010/08/review-historical-romance-fiction-heterosexuality-and-performativity-by-lisa-fletcher/) - Romance criticism often conveys the impression that it was written by a scholar on holiday, as it were, from more important work on worthier fiction. Interesting things may be said about the genre, but the formalities of intellectual rigor and theoretical sophistication have often been shrugged off, as though they were not really expected, let
- [Review: <em>A Vindication of Love: Reclaiming Romance for the Twenty-first Century</em>, by Cristina Nehring](https://www.jprstudies.org/2010/08/review-a-vindication-of-love-reclaiming-romance-for-the-twenty-first-century-by-cristina-nehring/) - It’s unlikely to surprise readers of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies that a book that promises to reclaim romance for our century makes no mention of the popular romance novel. Or that author Cristina Nehring evinces no curiosity whatever, either about the consistent reading habits of vast numbers of women or the robust sales
- [Editor's Note: Issue 1.2](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/03/editors-note-issue-1-2/) - The Journal of Popular Romance Studies is dedicated to publishing scholarship on romantic love in global popular media, now and in the past, along with interviews, pedagogical discussions, and other material of use to both scholars and teachers. With this second issue, we make good on that mission in several new and exciting ways. We
- [Does This Book Make Me Look Fat?](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/03/does-this-book-make-me-look-fat/) - On July 26th, 2008, the website “Smart Bitches Trashy Books,” which reviews romance novels and related genres, featured a post from Smart Bitch (SB) Sarah, who pondered whether romance novels featuring so-called “plus-size”[1] heroines were “GS v. STA” (“good shit” as opposed to “shit to avoid”). SB Sarah’s concerns are threefold: Problem 1) The heroine
- [Men Conquer the World and Women Save Mankind: Rewriting Patriarchal Traditions through Web-based Matriarchal Romances](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/03/men-conquer-the-world-and-women-save-mankind/) - Web writing has caused major shifts in the modes and mores of popular Chinese romance. In 2008, China became the world’s largest Internet market (Barboza), and Web literature, consisting mainly of unedited items and featuring various genres, has surpassed the volume of published print matter since 2000 (Linder 647). Yet few scholars have examined popular
- [These are Just Romances: Love and the Single Woman in the Fiction of Rosamond Lehmann](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/03/“these-are-just-romances-love-and-the-single-woman-in-the-fiction-of-rosamond-lehmann-by-emma-sterry/) - In the 1920s, the popular novelist Berta Ruck read a selection of short stories written by the then-unpublished Rosamond Lehmann. Delivering her verdict, she proclaimed to Lehmann “I don’t know if you’ll ever be a writer [. . .] but you must write about things you know: these are just romances” (Hastings 60). In her
- [Romancing the Past: History, Love, and Genre in Vincent Ward’s <em>River Queen</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/12/romancing-the-past-history-love-and-genre-in-vincent-ward’s-river-queen-by-roger-nicholson/) - There are many forms of writing; only in literature, however, can there be an attempt at restitution over and above the mere recital of facts, and over and above scholarship. (W. G. Sebald. ‘An Attempt at Restitution’) I fell in love with Ngoungou, for he was a very fine looking Maori indeed, and he took
- [Editor's Note: Issue 2.1](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/10/editors-note-issue-2-1/) - In August, 2010, thirty-one scholars from four continents gathered in Brussels for the second annual International Conference on Popular Romance Studies sponsored by the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance. (The third was held in New York City June, 2011; a call for papers is out for the fourth, to be held in
- [What Do Critics Owe the Romance? Keynote Address at the Second Annual Conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/10/“what-do-critics-owe-the-romance-keynote-address-at-the-second-annual-conference-of-the-international-association-for-the-study-of-popular-romance”-by-pamela-regis/) - Response: “Matricide in Romance Scholarship? Response to Pamela Regis’s Keynote Address at the Second Annual Conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance” by An Goris As my contribution to the central concern of this conference—theorizing romance—I will examine not romance novels, the particular form of popular romance that I study, but
- [Matricide in Romance Scholarship? Response to Pamela Regis’ Keynote Address at the Second Annual Conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/10/“matricide-in-romance-scholarship-response-to-pamela-regis’-keynote-address-at-the-second-annual-conference-of-the-international-association-for-the-study-of-popular-romance”/) - See also: “What Do Critics Owe the Romance? Keynote Address at the Second Annual Conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance” by Pamela Regis “What do Critics Owe the Romance?”, one of three keynote lectures at the 2010 IASPR conference, is a strong and much-welcome contribution to the development of a
- [“The Bells Are Ringing for Me and My Gal": Marriage and Gender in the Contemporary Greek Romantic Comedy](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/10/“‘the-bells-are-ringing-for-me-and-my-gal’-marriage-and-gender-in-the-contemporary-greek-romantic-comedy”-by-betty-kaklamanidou/) - Recent academic work on Hollywood romcoms of the past and present has demonstrated how such films encode significant meanings concerning gender politics, in their plots, characterization, structure, and point-of-view (Harvey, Evans & Deleyto, Beach, Glitre, and Abbott & Jermyn, among others). This paper takes a comparable approach to the Greek romantic comedy, a genre whose
- [Translated Romances: the Effect of Cultural Textual Norms on the Communication of Emotions](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/10/“translated-romances-the-effect-of-cultural-textual-norms-on-the-communication-of-emotions”-by-artemis-lamprinou/) - The present paper focuses on romances in translation in order to observe how cultural norms affect the translators' work on conveying emotions. More specifically, it focuses on the translation of universal emotions in contemporary British English romances into a different language and culture; that is, into Greek. Τhe paper starts with a short section on
- [Safe Sex with Defanged Vampires: New Vampire Heroes in <em>Twilight</em> and the <em>Southern Vampire Mysteries</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/10/“safe-sex-with-defanged-vampires-new-vampire-heroes-in-twilight-and-the-southern-vampire-mysteries”-by-chiho-nakagawa/) - Although we are witnessing a surge of vampire novels and movies today, this popularity is not merely a contemporary phenomenon. Many vampire-themed stories have been written since the publication of the first popular vampire novel, Dracula (1897), and many TV shows and films have been produced, notably including Nosferatu (1922), Blood and Roses (1960), TV
- [Belles, Beaux, and Paratexts: American Story Papers and the Project of Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/10/“belles-beaux-and-paratexts-american-story-papers-and-the-project-of-romance”-by-william-gleason/) - The mass marketing of modern romance fiction in North America began not with the emergence of Harlequin Books in the 1950s but during the dime novel and story paper boom of the 1860s and 1870s. Seeking to capitalize on the longstanding appeal of love stories, which had been appearing alongside other popular genres in the
- [Romance and Repetition: Testing the Limits of Love](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/10/“romance-and-repetition-testing-the-limits-of-love”-by-lynne-pearce/) - The need for, yet denial of, repetition constitutes a paradox that seems set to confound romantic love for ever more. Inasmuch as many of our most enduring definitions of love regard its non-repeatability as key (“love is forever”; “you and no other” etc), and others (particularly those stemming from psychoanalysis) regard the human subject’s compulsion
- [The Comic, the Serious and the Middle: Desire and Space in Contemporary Film Romantic Comedy](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/10/the-comic-the-serious-and-the-middle-desire-and-space-in-contemporary-film-romantic-comedy-by-celestino-deleyto/) - Romantic comedy is a genre that promotes and celebrates romantic love. This commonsense description may be more problematic than it seems at first sight. Indeed, the equivalence between romantic love and romantic comedy is not historically tenable. Romantic love as a specific Western concept consolidated itself in the eighteenth century and only became a dominant
- [Theorising Male Virginity in Popular Romance Novels](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/10/theorising-male-virginity/) - Almost every major critic of popular romance fiction—and probably minor ones too—notes that in reading the romance novel, readers will encounter virgin heroines. “For most of the genre’s history,” Pamela Regis explains, “the romance heroine was depicted as a virgin” (35). Indeed, in the first wave of romance scholarship, the trope of female virginity was
- [When chick lit meets romanzo rosa: Intertextual narratives in Stefania Bertola’s romantic fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/12/when-chick-lit-meets-romanzo-rosa-intertextual-narratives-in-stefania-bertola’s-romantic-fiction-by-federica-balducci/) - Introduction This article examines the work of Stefania Bertola (b. 1952), a prolific Italian writer of romantic fiction who creatively blends the codes and practices of romanzo rosa, Italy’s tradition of popular romance, with narrative tropes and cultural trends set up by contemporary Anglophone chick lit. In the landscape of Italy’s contemporary romantic fiction, where
- [Review: <em>Reading the Adolescent Romance: Sweet Valley High and the Popular Young Adult Romance Novel</em>, by Amy S. Pattee](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/12/review-reading-the-adolescent-romance-sweet-valley-high-and-the-popular-young-adult-romance-novel-by-amy-s-pattee/) - As a pre-teen reader in suburban Virginia, Amy Pattee and her twin sister Ellie, like many of their contemporaries, were avid consumers of the Sweet Valley High series of romances. As an adult and a scholar, Pattee is Associate Professor of Library and Information Science at Simmons College, where she also teaches classes on children’s
- [Review: <em>Boys' Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre</em>, edited by Antonia Levi, Mark McHarry, and Dru Pagliassotti](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/12/review-boys-love-manga-essays-on-the-sexual-ambiguity-and-cross-cultural-fandom-of-the-genre/) - Review by Johansen Quijano The academic community has shown an increasing amount of interest in romance literature, in particular in romance novels, during the past decade. With scholars like Lisa Fletcher, Diana Holmes, and Pamela Regis dedicating volumes to the scholarly study of popular romance fiction, and with critical readings of individual works carving out
- [Review: <em>Chick Lit and Postfeminism</em>, by Stephanie Harzewski](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/12/review-chick-lit-and-postfeminism-by-stephanie-harzewski/) - From almost the moment the terms chick lit entered the English vocabulary in the mid-1990s, the popular novels grouped into the category have faced derision, if not outright hostility in the popular press, as well as from so-called “literary authors” and “serious” academics. The authors branded—often unwillingly—with the label have been dismissed as chickerati, accused
- [Review: <em>Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think About Marrying</em>, by Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker](https://www.jprstudies.org/2011/12/review-premarital-sex-in-america-how-young-americans-meet-mate-and-think-about-marrying/) - Review by Jonathan A. Allan As romance readers and scholars both know, the sexual ethos of the popular romance novel has changed over the years. Regnerus and Uecker’s book Premarital Sex in America (2011) provides a sociological context for some of those changes. Exploring the ways in which sexuality has changed and how it functions
- [Review: <em>Virgin Territory: Representing Sexual Inexperience in Film</em>, edited by Tamar Jeffers McDonald](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/04/review-virgin-territory-representing-sexual-inexperience-in-film/) - The scholarship on virginity is surprisingly sparse for a subject so ubiquitous in cultural narratives and so rich in interpretative possibilities. Apart from two general histories of the topic by Hanne Blank (2007) and Anke Bernau (2007), and an emerging interest as it pertains to girlhood studies, much of the focus on virginity has occurred
- [Review: <em>The First Time: True Tales of Virginity Lost and Found (Including my Own)</em>, by Kate Monro](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/04/review-the-first-time-true-tales-of-virginity-lost-and-found-including-my-own-by-kate-monro/) - Ten years ago, when I was seeking a publisher for the book manuscript that would eventually become Virginity Lost: An Intimate Portrait of First Sexual Experiences, one prominent academic press responded in a way that spoke volumes about popular perceptions of the relationship between romance and virginity loss. “You’ve got all the ingredients for a
- [<b>Editor's Note: Issue 2.2</b>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/04/editors-note-issue-2-2/) - Five years ago, at a hotel bar in Boston, Sarah S. G. Frantz and I sat down with a half-dozen scholars from the U.S., Australia, and elsewhere to plan a new era in popular romance studies. We needed a professional organization, we decided, and an international conference, to get new conversations started among those who
- [A Parody of Love: the Narrative Uses of Rape in Popular Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/04/a-parody-of-love-the-narrative-uses-of-rape-in-popular-romance-by-angela-toscano/) - The arguments surrounding the use of rape as a device in popular romance, within both reader and scholarly communities, have most often pivoted on the cultural or psychological significance of such scenes. Defenders and condemners alike are more interested in how and to what extent these scenes affect or reflect the lives of real women,
- [Francophone Perspectives on Romantic Fiction: From the Academic Field to Reader’s Experience (Interview with Agnès Caubet, Romance Reader and Webmaster of Les Romantiques, fan website and webzine)](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/04/francophone-perspectives-on-romantic-fiction-from-the-academic-field-to-readers-experience-by-severine-olivier-interview-with-agnes-caubet-romance-reader-and-webmaster-of-les-romantiques/) - Although Francophone romance scholarship dates back to the 1980s, the scholars who write it are not generally familiar with the genre. They identify romantic fiction exclusively with Harlequin category romances or Barbara Cartland’s romance novels, and when they try to understand romance readers and why they read romantic fiction, Francophone romance scholars are, with few
- [Jennifer Crusie's Literary Lingerie](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/04/jennifer-crusies-literary-lingerie-by-laura-vivanco/) - Jennifer Crusie has stated that “the details of the way people present themselves are heavy with meaning” (“Romancing” 86) and this is certainly true of the lingerie she depicts in her own novels. Lingerie plays a significant role in many of her romances from Sizzle, “the first book I wrote even though it was published
- [Crusie and the Con](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/04/crusie-and-the-con-by-christina-a-valeo/) - As Crusie’s romantic leads evolve from chasing the con (Trust Me on This), to abandoning the con (Welcome to Temptation), to embracing the con (Faking It), they highlight the ways in which romance is like a con and the sometimes slippery distinctions between these two kinds of intimate, interpersonal relationships. The outcomes of both romantic
- [Tell Me Lies: Lying, Storytelling, and the Romance Novel as Feminist Fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/04/tell-me-lies-lying-storytelling-and-the-romance-novel-as-feminist-fiction-by-patricia-zakreski/) - When Mitch Peatwick in What the Lady Wants (1995) tells Mae Sullivan that “the first rule in life is ‘everybody lies’,” he articulates one of the central motifs that runs through the majority of Jennifer Crusie’s novels (24). Lying forms a key part of many of Crusie’s narratives, and most of Crusie’s heroines lie. From
- [Getting Laid, Getting Old, and Getting Fed: The Cultural Resistance of Jennifer Crusie’s Romance Heroines](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/04/getting-laid-getting-old-and-getting-fed-the-cultural-resistance-of-jennifer-crusies-romance-heroines-by-kyra-kramer/) - Jennifer Crusie identifies herself as a feminist author who attempts to communicate the ideals of gender equality via her narratives. As she has explained, she chose to write feminist romances because too few authors were writing the “edgy, angry feminist love stories I wanted to read” and the “combination of what you love in your
- [Gossip, Liminality, and Erotic Display: Jennifer Crusie's Links to Eighteenth- Century Amatory Fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/04/gossip-liminality-and-erotic-display-jennifer-crusies-links-to-eighteenth-century-amatory-fiction-by-kimberly-baldus/) - In a scene that combines eroticism, humor and a flying dolphin lamp, Jennifer Crusie’s hero and heroine in Welcome to Temptation struggle to find passion and overcome “lousy” sex as they engage in the “Phallic Variation” for the first time (135). While Sophie sinks into self-doubt about her own passionate nature, Phin realizes that she
- [Review: <em>For Love and Money: The Literary Art of the Harlequin Mills & Boon Romance</em>, by Laura Vivanco](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/10/review-for-love-and-money-the-literary-art-of-the-harlequin-mills-boon-romance-by-laura-vivanco/) - Nearly thirty years ago, Margaret Ann Jensen wrote Love’s $weet Return: The Harlequin Story (1984), perhaps the first full-length academic study of category romance fiction. Jensen lamented the status of popular romance, which when not ignored is “vilified as is no other category of popular fiction” (25). It was considered, in short, “trash,” and Jensen
- [Review: <em>Romancing God: Evangelical Women and Inspirational Fiction</em>, by Lynn S. Neal](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/10/review-romancing-god-evangelical-women-and-inspirational-fiction-by-lynn-s-neal/) - Lynn Neal’s book Romancing God: Evangelical Women and Inspirational Fiction is an important book for scholars of popular romance, even if they never intend to read in or write on the subgenre of evangelical romance. In thinking about what separates such a subgenre from the broader category, scholars are required to reexamine some basic assumptions
- [Review: <em>The Hollywood Romantic Comedy: Conventions, History and Controversies</em>, by Leger Grindon](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/10/review-the-hollywood-romantic-comedy-conventions-history-and-controversies-by-leger-grindon/) - Whenever I write about the romantic comedy film genre, I start by underlining the absence of adequate academic references, especially regarding contemporary films. Fortunately, during the last two decades a limited number of academic titles have begun to fill in this gap, providing a long-overdue systematic analysis of a culturally significant body of films and
- [Editor's Note: Issue 3.1](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/10/editors-note-issue-3-1/) - Just over a year ago, scholars from around the world gathered at the Fales Library and Special Collections of New York University, for the Third Annual International Conference on Popular Romance: “Can’t Buy Me Love? Sex, Money, Power, and Romance.” (The Fourth International conference was held in York, UK, late in September, 2012; the Fifth
- [Mind, Body, Love: Nora Roberts and the Evolution of Popular Romance Studies](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/10/mind-body-love-nora-roberts-and-the-evolution-of-popular-romance-studies-by-an-goris/) - Introduction These are exciting times for popular romance scholars.[1] Over the last few years a number of interconnected developments—including the founding of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR) in 2009 and of the peer-reviewed Journal of Popular Romance Studies in 2010, the increase of international conferences about popular romance (Brisbane (2009),
- [Charm the Boys, Win the Girls: Power Struggles in Mary Stolz’s Cold War Adolescent Girl Romance Novels](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/10/charm-the-boys-win-the-girls-power-struggles-in-mary-stolzs-cold-war-adolescent-girl-romance-novels-by-amanda-k-allen/) - Here was what she’d been waiting for. Not something—someone. Here, as so often in the daydreams, Douglas Eamons was talking to her. Doug . . . in college now, emptying the vast high school when he left, leaving the crowded corridors, the wide classrooms empty, taking the flicker of promise from lunch hours, when she
- [The Upper-Class Bisexual Top as Romantic Hero: (Pre)dominant in the Social Structure and in the Bedroom](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/10/the-upper-class-bisexual-top-as-romantic-hero-predominant-in-the-social-structure-and-in-the-bedroom-by-ann-herendeen/) - As an illustration of the attractions of wealth and high social status in a marriage partner, it's hard to surpass Elizabeth Bennet's reply in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice to her sister Jane's question as to how long she has loved Mr. Darcy: "I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful
- ["Just Say Yes": the Romanticisation of Love in <em>Sex and the City</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/10/just-say-yes-the-romanticisation-of-love-in-sex-and-the-city-by-beatriz-oria/) - Welcome to the age of "un-innocence." No one has breakfast at Tiffany's, and no one has affairs to remember. Instead, we have breakfast at 7:00 a. m . . . and affairs we try to forget as quickly as possible. Self-protection and closing the deal are paramount. Cupid has flown the co-op. How the hell
- [Love in the Stacks: Popular Romance Collection Development in Academic Libraries](https://www.jprstudies.org/2012/10/love-in-the-stacks-popular-romance-collection-development-in-academic-libraries-by-crystal-goldman/) - Introduction As the field of Popular Romance Studies grows, greater emphasis needs to be placed on how and where popular romance scholars gain access to research materials, specifically in regard to academic libraries. While there is a growing amount of information available freely on the internet, relying solely on web-based sources can leave gaps in
- [Review: <em>Desert Passions: Orientalism and Romance Novels</em>, by Hsu-Ming Teo](https://www.jprstudies.org/2013/06/review-desert-passions-orientalism-and-romance-novels-by-hsu-ming-teo/) - It’s been almost a century since E. M. Hull’s Sheikh Ahmed ben Hassan made the brooding, hypersexual sheikh a central figure in Anglophone romance, first in the pages of The Sheik, a scandalous international bestseller in 1919, and then on screen, as played by Rudolph Valentino in 1921. In contemporary romance novels, this character does
- [Review: <em>Romance</em>, by Barbara Fuchs](https://www.jprstudies.org/2013/06/review-romance-by-barbara-fuchs/) - As Barbara Fuchs acknowledges in the first line of Romance, “romance is a notoriously slippery category” (1). This compact book, part of Routledge’s New Critical Idiom series, proposes to outline the development of romance across European literature from classical antiquity to contemporary articulations. Fuchs seeks particularly to challenge the critical distinction between novel and romance—the
- [<b>Editor's Note: Issue 3.2</b>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2013/06/editors-note-issue-3-2/) - Change is in the air at the Journal of Popular Romance Studies! Since our last issue, we have almost doubled the size of our Editorial Board, expanding its range in terms both of geography and of disciplinary expertise. Many of our board members have graciously allowed us to link their names to their professional home
- [Georgette Heyer: The Nonesuch of Regency Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2013/06/georgette-heyer-the-nonesuch-of-regency-romance-by-laura-vivanco/) - Georgette Heyer’s “invariable answer, when asked about her private life, was to refer the questioner back to her books. You will find me, she said, in my work” (Aiken Hodge ix).[1] Although The Nonesuch (1962) is probably not Heyer’s best-known or best-loved Regency romance, there is a great deal of Heyer in this novel. Its
- ['Who the devil wrote that?': Intertextuality and Authorial Reputation in Georgette Heyer’s <em>Venetia</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2013/06/who-the-devil-wrote-that-intertextuality-and-authorial-reputation-in-georgette-heyers-venetia-by-elizabeth-barr/) - During a career that spanned the years 1921 to her death in 1974, British author Georgette Heyer wrote fifty-six novels and achieved enviable fame and fortune. However, [End Page 1] despite her commercial success, Heyer was never seen to belong in the higher literary circles, and, to this day, her work has been largely dismissed
- [Review: <em>Women and Romance: A Reader</em>, by Susan Ostrov Weisser](https://www.jprstudies.org/2013/06/review-women-and-romance-a-reader-by-susan-ostrov-weisser/) - In the introduction to Women and Romance: A Reader, Susan Ostrov Weisser inquires whether romantic love weakens or empowers women. “Is it a debilitating illusion, a form of false consciousness,” she asks, “or the understandable expression of a universal human need?” (1). These questions will sound familiar to scholars of popular romance fiction and film,
- [<b>Regis Roundtable: After <em>A Natural History of the Romance Novel</em> (Introduction)</b>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2013/06/regis-roundtable-after-a-natural-history-of-the-romance-novel-introduction/) - At the annual meeting of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (March 27-30, 2013, Washington D.C.), scholars gathered to mark the tenth anniversary of Pamela Regis’s A Natural History of the Romance Novel. The approach to the genre this book takes has profoundly shaped much of the scholarship on popular romance fiction since the mid-2000s,
- [Ten Years After <em>A Natural History of the Romance Novel</em>: Thinking Back, Looking Forward](https://www.jprstudies.org/2013/06/ten-years-after-a-natural-history-of-the-romance-novel-thinking-back-looking-forward-by-pamela-regis/) - Address given at the 2013 Popular Culture Association Annual Conference, Washington, D.C. March 2013. A Natural History of the Romance Novel was published ten years ago. At the kind invitation of the PCA Romance Area co-chairs, Drs. Eric Selinger and An Goris, I welcomed the opportunity to revisit a bit of the history of that
- [Rebooting the Romance: The Impact of <em>A Natural History of the Romance Novel</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2013/06/rebooting-the-romance-the-impact-of-a-natural-history-of-the-romance-novel-by-eric-murphy-selinger/) - In the summer or fall of 2005, I went to my local public library to pick up some books on “romance.” I was new to the field, if there was a field, of popular romance studies, and back then there was no RomanceScholar listserv to join, no Teach Me Tonight (the academic romance blog) to
- [<em>A Natural History of the Romance Novel</em>’s Enduring Romance with Popular Romance Studies](https://www.jprstudies.org/2013/06/a-natural-history-of-the-romance-novels-enduring-romance-with-popular-romance-studies-by-an-goris/) - A Natural History of the Romance Novel is one of the most pivotal works on popular romance that has ever been published. In terms of influence it is right up there with Janice Radway’s Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy and Popular Literature (1984). In fact, although the academic community at large seems mostly to associate
- [How to Tame a Dragon: Ten years after <em>A Natural History of the Romance Novel</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2013/06/how-to-tame-a-dragon-ten-years-after-a-natural-history-of-the-romance-novel-by-jayashree-kamble/) - I started graduate school in 2000 with the intent of studying Shakespeare and film. In 2002, when I expressed some uncertainty about my doctoral focus, I was advised by a professor to write my dissertation on the works I like to read even when I don’t have to read them. Since I read romance fiction,
- [On the Tenth Anniversary of Pamela Regis’s <em> A Natural History of the Romance Novel </em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2013/06/on-the-tenth-anniversary-of-pamela-regiss-a-natural-history-of-the-romance-novel-by-sarah-s-g-frantz/) - In Los Angeles in 2004, I sat down next to Pam Regis at the annual conference of the Jane Austen Society of North America—in fact, I sought her out in order to sit down next to her—and told her how much I loved her book. I had finished my dissertation the previous year and was
- [Reading the Regis Roundtable: An Outsider’s Perspective](https://www.jprstudies.org/2013/06/reading-the-regis-roundtable-an-outsiders-perspective-by-jonathan-a-allan/) - I was not at the PCA this year (truthfully, I’ve never been). I write this brief commentary as an outsider, insofar as I’ve never been “inside” PCA, and as someone, who came to popular romance almost by accident. Still, I applied to the 2010 International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR) conference in
- [<b>Editor's Note: Issue 4.1</b>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/02/editors-note-issue-4-1/) - Last November, the Humanities Research Centre at Australian National University held a two-day conference on “The Radicalism of Romantic Love: Critical Perspectives.” The conference conveners, Renata Grossi and David West, come to the subject of love from backgrounds in law and political philosophy; Ann Ferguson, who spoke with me on the opening panel, is an
- [<em>Fifty Shades</em> of “Mommy Porn”: A Post-GFC Renegotiation of Paternal Law](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/02/fifty-shades-of-mommy-porn-a-post-gfc-renegotiation-of-paternal-lawby-claire-trevenen/) - [End Page 1] “My mind drifts. Christian the sadist. Christian the submissive. Christian the untouchable. Christian’s Oedipal impulses… Can I really marry this man?” (E.L. James’s Fifty Shades Darker, 314). Dubbed “Mommy Porn” in the mass media, E.L. James’s phenomenally popular[1] Fifty Shades trilogy (2011) (Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, and Fifty Shades Freed,
- [Fifty Shades of Remix: The Intersecting Pleasures of Commercial and Fan Romances](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/02/fifty-shades-of-remix-the-intersecting-pleasures-of-commercial-and-fan-romancesby-katherine-morrissey/) - The commercial success of the Fifty Shades of Grey books has prompted an outpouring of media coverage on the trilogy and its rapid success. Much of this coverage has focused on the idea of "mommy porn" and the notion that not only do female readers seem to enjoy erotic literature, but there is also potential
- [The Political Uses of Lesbian Romance Fiction: Reading Patrick Califia's <em>Macho Sluts</em> as a Response to 1980s Anti-Pornography Feminism](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/02/the-political-uses-of-lesbian-romance-fiction-reading-patrick-califias-macho-sluts-as-a-response-to-1980s-anti-pornography-feminismby-carolyn-bronstein/) - In 1988, the author and political activist Patrick Califia published Macho Sluts, the first collection of sadomasochism-themed short fiction to provide visibility and erotic legitimacy for the modern lesbian leather community.[1] Offering a vivid portrait of the discos, sex clubs, and bars that nurtured the Bay Area’s lesbian SM scene, Macho Sluts revealed a complex
- [Review: <em>New Approaches to Popular Romance Fiction: Critical Essays</em>, edited by Sarah S. G. Frantz and Eric Murphy Selinger](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/02/review-new-approaches-to-popular-romance-fiction-critical-essaysedited-by-sarah-s-g-frantz-and-eric-murphy-selinger/) - This comprehensive collection of original essays on popular romance fiction delivers on the promise of its title. The succinct and insightful introductory essay by co-editors Frantz and Selinger is the best survey and analysis to date of how the study of popular romance has developed and evolved. Keenly aware of the politics of romance criticism,
- [Review: <em>Delmira Agustini, Sexual Seduction and Vampiric Conquest</em>, by Cathy L. Jrade](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/02/review-delmira-agustini-sexual-seduction-and-vampiric-conquestby-cathy-l-jrade/) - As one of the most well-known Uruguayan poets of the twentieth century and the only recognized female member of the Latin American modernista movement, Delmira Agustini (1886-1914) has received substantial critical attention throughout the twentieth century and beyond. While her early readers tended either to extol her as an innocent young girl prone to mystical
- [Review: <em>Trauma and Romance in Contemporary British Literature</em>, edited by Jean-Michel Ganteau and Susana Onega](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/02/review-trauma-and-romance-in-contemporary-british-literatureedited-by-jean-michel-ganteau-and-susana-onega/) - The relentless pairing of trauma and romance in literature is no coincidence. Both trauma and romance—which, apart from psychological and social experience, manifest as themes, narrative strategies and styles—mount formidable and relentlessly popular challenges to the capacities of language and narration. In their recent edited collection, Trauma and Romance in Contemporary British Literature (part of
- [Review: <em>Gothicka: Vampire Heroes, Human Gods, and the New Supernatural</em>, by Victoria Nelson](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/02/review-gothicka-vampire-heroes-human-gods-and-the-new-supernaturalby-victoria-nelson/) - Victoria Nelson’s second book, Gothicka: Vampire Heroes, Human Gods, and the New Supernatural, ends on an invocative note. “May the Gothick never lose its dedication to Story. May it never lose its outrageousness or its lowbrow ways. And may it never lose its ability to push us into territories that are totally unexpected. Long live
- [Regimes of Affect: Love and Class in Mexican Neoliberal Cinema](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/02/regimes-of-affect-love-and-class-in-mexican-neoliberal-cinemaby-ignacio-m-sanchez-prado/) - The recent rise in the study of affect and emotions within different paradigms of cultural studies opens many questions relevant to the study of Mexican and Latin American cinema.[1] It has led to the reconsideration of a series of cultural paradigms, most notably melodrama,[2] as part of networks of aesthetic configuration, audience engagement and political
- [Vulnerable Bodies: Subverting Masculine Normativity in Leopoldo Torre Nilsson’s <em>Boquitas pintadas</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/02/vulnerable-bodies-subverting-masculine-normativity-in-leopoldo-torre-nilssons-boquitas-pintadasby-assen-kokalov/) - Director Leopoldo Torre Nilsson enjoyed an intimate connection with Argentine cinema from a very early age: his father, Leopoldo Torres Ríos, and his uncle, Carlos Torres Ríos, were two of the most important filmmakers of their country during the first half of the twentieth century. Following in their footsteps, Torre Nilsson began his film career
- [From Latin to Latino Lover: Hispanicity and Female Desire in Popular Culture](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/02/from-latin-to-latino-lover-hispanicity-and-female-desire-in-popular-cultureby-nadia-lie/) - According to Richard Rodriguez, we owe the invention of the Hispanic to Richard Nixon, whose administration introduced this category in 1973 in the classification system of United States citizens (15). Until then, demographic censuses had been based upon categories such as White and Black, Asian and Native American. Though inconsistent with this racial classification, the
- [Sara García: Sapphic Romance in Mexican Golden Age Filmmaking](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/02/sara-garcia-sapphic-romance-in-mexican-golden-age-filmmakingby-ileana-baeza-lope/) - I SANG to women gathered round; Forth from my own heart-springs Welled out the passion; of the pain I sang if the beloved in vain Is sighed for—when They stood untouched, as at the sound Of unfamiliar things, Oh, then my heart turned cold, and then I dropt my wings. Long Ago Michael Field 1917
- [Outing Javier Fuentes-León’s <em>Contracorriente</em> and the case for a New Queer Cinema in Latin America](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/02/outing-javier-fuentes-leons-contracorriente-and-the-case-for-a-new-queer-cinema-in-latin-americaby-vinodh-venkatesh/) - Javier Fuentes-León’s directorial debut, Contracorriente (2009), has garnered both critical interest and success, winning rave reviews from respected international print and web outlets and coveted Audience Awards at Sundance, Chicago, Miami, and Cartagena. The film recounts the archetypal love triangle of gay man (Santiago)-closeted man (Miguel)- [End Page 1] unsuspecting wife (Mariela) in a quiet
- [Review: <em>Romance: The History of a Genre</em>, edited by Dana Percec](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/review-romance-the-history-of-a-genreedited-by-dana-percec/) - Dana Percec’s Romance: The History of a Genre is a collection of essays by Romanian scholars, which seek to explore the ‘genre of romance’ (viii). It is the second book in a proposed project exploring ‘the evolution and dynamics of a number of literary genres in today’s global culture’ (viii). The first publication as part
- [Review: <em>The Princess Story: Modeling the Feminine in Twentieth-Century American Fiction and Film</em>, by Sarah Rothschild](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/review-the-princess-story-modeling-the-feminine-in-twentieth-century-american-fiction-and-filmby-sarah-rothschild/) - As I began outlining this review of Sarah Rothschild’s The Princess Story: Modeling the Feminine in Twentieth-Century American Fiction and Film, the cult of princess-hood appeared to have reached an all time crescendo. Previews for the live-action Disney release, Maleficent, featuring Angelina Jolie as the sinister fairy who curses Princess Aurora (otherwise known as Sleeping
- [Review: <em>Getting Inside Your Head: What Cognitive Science Can Tell Us about Popular Culture</em>, by Lisa Zunshine](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/review-getting-inside-your-head-what-cognitive-science-can-tell-us-about-popular-cultureby-lisa-zunshine/) - Lisa Zunshine’s Getting Inside Your Head: What Cognitive Science Can Tell Us about Popular Culture rests on a fascinating assertion: that the appeal of popular culture relies on its ability to engage us in the practice of theory of mind (ToM), “the evolved cognitive adaptation that makes us attribute mental states to ourselves and to
- [<em>Reading the Romance</em>: A Thirtieth Anniversary Roundtable, Editor’s Introduction](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/reading-the-romance-a-thirtieth-anniversary-roundtable-editors-introduction-2/) - At the annual meeting of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (April 16-18, 2014, Chicago), scholars of English, cultural studies, fandom, religious studies, and other disciplines gathered to mark the thirtieth anniversary of Janice Radway’s Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature. Around the world, this ethnographic study of the romance readers of “Smithton,” a
- [Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks?: Romance, Ethics and Human-Dog Relationships in a Rural Australian Novel](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/teaching-an-old-dog-new-tricks-romance-ethics-and-human-dog-relationships-in-a-rural-australian-novelby-lauren-omahony/) - If he is not to stifle his human feelings, he must practise kindness towards animals, for he who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals. -Immanuel Kant In the Australian cultural imagination, men have been the dominant
- [Review: <em>Happy Endings in Hollywood Cinema. Cliché, Convention and the Final Couple</em>, by James MacDowell](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/review-happy-endings-in-hollywood-cinema-cliche-convention-and-the-final-coupleby-james-macdowell/) - Not only do we know how it will end, but we know it will end well. Boy gets girl, or girl gets boy, and they live happily ever after. The happy ending depicting the union of a couple is synonymous with Hollywood cinema. Fritz Lang (1948) described the happy ending as the following: The traditional
- [Review: <em>Deconstructing Twilight: Psychological and Feminist Perspectives on the Series</em>, by Donna M. Ashcraft](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/review-deconstructing-twilight-psychological-and-feminist-perspectives-on-the-seriesby-donna-m-ashcraft/) - Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga has created a polarizing media franchise for the better part of the past decade, encompassing books, films, dolls, travel tourism, jewelry, and lately, academic interest. Its popularity has spawned a host of imitators and imitations, not to mention the entire sections of bookstores that are now given over to selling said
- [We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby: Reflecting Thirty Years after <em>Reading the Romance</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/weve-come-a-long-way-baby-reflecting-thirty-years-after-reading-the-romanceby-mallory-jagodzinski/) - The publication of Reading the Romance made room at the academic table for doing scholarly work on romance. Radway’s book has made it possible for me to pursue scholarly work that I not only enjoy, but also hold near to my heart. Yet doing popular romance studies today can sometimes be made difficult by some of the
- [Rattling the Toolkit: Methods for Reading Romance, Gender, and Culture](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/rattling-the-toolkit-methods-for-reading-romance-gender-and-cultureby-katherine-morrissey/) - I want to begin by setting the scene. It's 2007 and I’m stumbling my way through my second semester as a master’s student. I'm reading Judith Butler for the first time and, unsurprisingly, am completely panicking because I need to explain gender performativity to the rest of my class in three days. To manage this
- [From <em>Reading the Romance</em> to Grappling with Genre](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/from-reading-the-romance-to-grappling-with-genreby-stephanie-moody/) - I first encountered Reading the Romance in the fall of 2007. At the time, I was a first-semester graduate student in the Joint Program of English and Education at the University of Michigan. At the start of my doctoral journey, I had every intention of developing a research topic around adolescent literacy practices in out-of-school contexts. As
- [Love's Laborers Lost:  Radway, Romance Writers, and Recuperating Our Past](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/loves-laborers-lost-radway-romance-writers-and-recuperating-our-pastby-heather-schell/) - Once upon a time, a group of romance novelists in America banded together and formed a professional organization. (That time was, to be more exact, 1980.) And once upon more or less the same time, several scholars began writing about popular romance. I think it’s fairly safe to say that Janice Radway and the other
- [Studying the Romance Reader, Then and Now:  Rereading Janice Radway’s <em>Reading the Romance</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/studying-the-romance-reader-then-and-now-rereading-janice-radways-reading-the-romancejessica-matthews/) - I read Janice Radway’s Reading the Romance in 1995, the first year of my graduate coursework. The book was a required text in my cultural studies course, a course where I had been struggling to grasp a catalog of cultural theories: Frankfurt School, Birmingham School, and the “-ists,” as I used to call them: Marxist, feminist, and
- [Radway Roundtable Remarks](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/radway-roundtable-remarksby-katherine-larsen/) - I’m something of “a spy in the house of love.” I don’t “do” romance. And yet Reading the Romance has had a significant influence on foundational work in my field of fan studies, and on my own work as well. Radway was initially confronted with a highly theorized (perhaps over-theorized) method of approaching the relationship of reader
- [The Politics of Popular Romance Studies](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/the-politics-of-popular-romance-studiesby-lynn-s-neal/) - There is so much to celebrate about this book and its place in the field, but I’ve been given very little time, so I’d like to focus my brief remarks and questions around the politics—past and present, then and now—that come with studying popular romance. Reading the Romance helped pave the way for popular romance studies; however,
- [To My Mentor, Jan Radway, With Love](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/to-my-mentor-jan-radway-with-loveby-deborah-chappel-traylor/) - This panel was organized with each member giving a different perspective on Reading the Romance at its thirtieth anniversary. Clearly, I’m here to give the historical perspective, and I’m happy to do that. I have a lot of history with this book—in fact, my history with the book and with Jan Radway herself reaches back almost 28
- [“I’m a Feminist, But…” Popular Romance in the Women’s Literature Classroom](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/im-a-feminist-but-popular-romance-in-the-womens-literature-classroomby-julie-m-dugger/) - As I grew older and began to better identify my values and beliefs… I realized that reconciling my love of feminist theory and classic romances would be no easy task. —Student discussion post, 2012 [End Page 1] To hear my classmates say "I hate that I enjoy this book because it's a romance" makes me
- [Genre, Author, Text, Reader: Teaching Nora Roberts’s <em>Spellbound</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/genre-author-text-reader-teaching-nora-robertss-spellboundby-beth-driscoll/) - Introduction[1] Teaching popular romance fiction in the university is a sharp reminder of the importance of the syllabus in shaping society-wide notions of literary value. As Pierre Bourdieu explains, educational institutions legitimise specific literary texts by cultivating familiarity with and appreciation of them (Field 121). The omission of popular romance fiction from the literary studies
- [Editor's Note: Issue 4.2](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/editors-note-issue-4-2/) - As editor of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies, I’m often tempted to point to this or that event as a turning point in scholarship on love in global popular culture. These days, however, the turning points are coming so quickly that I’m getting rather dizzy trying to follow them. In the past few months
- [After Happy Ever: Tender Extremities and Tangled Selves in Three Australasian Bluebeard Tales](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/after-happy-ever-tender-extremities-and-tangled-selves-in-three-australasian-bluebeard-talesby-lucy-butler/) - Introduction: Tending the Bluebeard Tale “We must tend the myths [...] only in that way shall we survive.” Janet Frame (2007, 109) The Bluebeard tales of Margaret Mahy, Sarah Quigley and Marion Campbell suggest that we use narratives of romance actively, if not often critically or consciously enough, to negotiate our relationships and give shape
- [Marriage, Romance and Mourning Movement in Cherie Nowlan’s <em>Thank God He Met Lizzie</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/marriage-romance-and-mourning-movement-in-cherie-nowlans-thank-god-he-met-lizzieby-mark-nicholls/) - Thank God He Met Lizzie (1997) stands out as an extremely rare example of an Australian romantic comedy/drama. Like most romantic comedies, this film is really about the negotiation of an obstacle to union and marital happiness. What is generically atypical [End Page 1] about the film, and the source of its drama, is that
- [A Masculine Romance: The Sentimental Bloke and Australian Culture in the War- and Early Interwar Years](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/a-masculine-romance-the-sentimental-bloke-and-australian-culture-in-the-war-and-early-interwar-yearsby-melissa-bellanta/) - In 1915, the Australian poet and journalist C. J. Dennis published a book of verse called The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke. When read in sequence, the verse told a love story about an uncultivated young man, Bill, and his sweetheart, Doreen, who worked in a [End Page 1] Melbourne pickle factory. Though written in
- [“We have to learn to love imperially”: Love in Late Colonial and Federation Australian Romance Novels](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/we-have-to-learn-to-love-imperially-love-in-late-colonial-and-federation-australian-romance-novelsby-hsu-ming-teo/) - [End Page 1] In Mary Bradford Whiting’s A Daughter of the Empire (1919), Christina Strafford travels to England after her father’s death to live with his cousin, Lady Agatha Strafford. The young Australian woman is dismayed to find the Mother Country “a little fussed-up place where you can’t so much as turn round without knocking
- [The Private and Public Life of Nellie Stewart’s Bangle](https://www.jprstudies.org/2014/10/the-private-and-public-life-of-nellie-stewarts-bangleby-annita-boyd/) - An Alluring Beauty The Nellie Stewart bangle was a plain gold bangle worn by many Australian and New Zealand women in the early twentieth century as a sign of romantic attachment. Before recovering the Nellie Stewart bangle as an important addition to the history of colonial fashion and sentimental object, it is important to understand
- [A Matter of Meta: Category Romance Fiction and the Interplay of Paratext and Library Metadata](https://www.jprstudies.org/2015/08/a-matter-of-meta-category-romance-fiction-and-the-interplay-of-paratext-and-library-metadataby-vassiliki-veros/) - Authors of romance fiction create vast economic capital but this does not necessarily lead to cultural capital. Libraries are collectors and endorsers of cultural capital evident through the selection of materials for library collections and the creation of metadata and metatexts to connect the cultural product to their user. [End Page 1] In this article,
- [Editor's Note: Issue 5.1](https://www.jprstudies.org/2015/08/editors-note-issue-5-1/) - The Journal of Popular Romance Studies started publishing almost exactly five years ago: August 4, 2010, by the date-stamp on the Editor’s Note for Issue 1.1. That note announced, a little grandly, that we were going to be a “peer-reviewed on-line journal dedicated to scholarship on the representation of romantic love in popular media, now
- [True Love’s Kiss and Happily Ever After: the religion of love in American film](https://www.jprstudies.org/2015/08/true-loves-kiss-and-happily-ever-after-the-religion-of-love-in-american-filmby-jyoti-raghu/) - [End Page 1] Introduction In this article, I investigate romantic love in American film as a site for experiencing a divine presence in the immanent everyday experiences of love, marriage and family (Williams, Dante 6, 8, 40; Williams, Outlines 7, 9, 14, 17, 29).[1] To explore this theme I focus on the “kiss” in romantic
- [Chick Lit in Historical Settings by Frida Skybäck](https://www.jprstudies.org/2015/08/chick-lit-in-historical-settings-by-frida-skybackby-helene-ehriander/) - Chick lit is a genre that usually depicts what life is like for young women in big cities, or occasionally—for the sake of variety—on fashionable country estates. They pursue their careers, go to parties, gossip with their girlfriends, and shop, while dating a series of men in their hunt for the right one. They contemplate
- [Love in the Desert:  Images of Arab-American Reconciliation in Contemporary Sheikh Romance Novels](https://www.jprstudies.org/2015/08/love-in-the-desert-images-of-arab-american-reconciliation-in-contemporary-sheikh-romance-novelsby-stacy-e-holden/) - Dr. Geneva Gray woke to the sound of nomads attacking her archaeological camp, which, though technically in Egypt, bordered all too closely the kingdom of Bah’shar.[1] Taken captive, the American was presented by the desert marauders as a gift to Sheikh Zafir bin Rashid al-Khalifa, leader of this fictional Arab country. Zafir recognizes Dr. Gray,
- [Stacy Holden’s “Love in the Desert”: An Author’s Response](https://www.jprstudies.org/2015/08/stacy-holdens-love-in-the-desert-an-authors-responseby-megan-crane/) - Do contemporary sheikh romance novels fetishize Arabs and subject them to the unwavering, privileged glare of the Western imagination as Holden asserts? Or is there a way in which all stories of the beloved fetishize and objectify the beloved—both heroine and hero in their turn, regardless of their cultural background or racial make-up, across all
- [14 Weeks of Love and Labour: Teaching Regency and Desert Romance to Undergraduate Students](https://www.jprstudies.org/2015/08/14-weeks-of-love-and-labour-teaching-regency-and-desert-romance-to-undergraduate-studentsby-karin-heiss/) - [End Page 1] In February 2012, after finishing my Magister thesis on the popular Regency romance and getting my degree,[1] I was offered the opportunity to become a doctoral candidate at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), along with the chance to start teaching English Literary and Cultural Studies at the Department of English and American Studies.[2]
- [Review: <em>Conjugations: Marriage and Form in New Bollywood Cinema</em>, by Sangita Gopal; <em>Censorship and Sexuality in Bombay Cinema</em>, by Monika Mehta](https://www.jprstudies.org/2015/08/review-conjugations-marriage-and-form-in-new-bollywood-cinema-by-sangita-gopal-censorship-and-sexuality-in-bombay-cinema-by-monika-mehta/) - Best known for its romantic melodramas and ubiquitous song-and-dance sequences, Bollywood is the largest of India’s culture industries. This prolific Hindi-language commercial film industry based in Mumbai (Bombay) boasts an annual output of over 250 films and a daily audience of 100 million. Its films have always been tremendously popular not just with Indian viewers
- [Review: <em>The Contradictions of Love: Towards a feminist-realist sociosexuality</em>, by Lena Gunnarsson](https://www.jprstudies.org/2015/08/review-the-contradictions-of-love-towards-a-feminist-realist-sociosexuality-by-lena-gunnarsson/) - Published in Routledge’s ‘Ontological Explorations’ series, it is my guess that for most readers of this journal – as for myself – Lena Gunnarsson’s book on love is one that might have passed them by were it not for this review. This chimes with something I have become increasingly aware of recently: that is, the
- [Review: <em>The Problem with Pleasure: Modernism and its Discontents</em>, by Laura Frost](https://www.jprstudies.org/2015/08/review-the-problem-with-pleasure-modernism-and-its-discontents-by-laura-frost/) - Nothing, one might argue, could be further from popular romance than literary modernism. On the one hand, we have a type of writing intimately concerned with both representing and eliciting pleasure in a reader, whose material conditions of production are commonly aligned with mass readerships, and whose literary strategies include the recursive repetition of well-loved
- [Review: <em>Sex, or the Unbearable</em>, by Lauren Berland and Lee Edelman; <em>Overcoming Objectification: A Carnal Ethics</em>, by Ann J. Cahill; <em>Erotic Memoirs and Postfeminism: The Politics of Pleasure</em>, by Joel Gwynne](https://www.jprstudies.org/2015/08/review-sex-or-the-unbearable-by-lauren-berland-and-lee-edelman-overcoming-objectification-a-carnal-ethics-by-ann-j-cahill-erotic-memoirs-and-postfeminism-the-politics-of-pleasure-by-joel-gwy/) - Sexuality and the erotic play central roles within the realm of the romance novel. As evidenced by recent contemporary criticism from some media outlets, the literary elite continues to deride romance novels as pornography for women and as objectifying the female characters thereby reinforcing cultural notions of gender and objectification.[1] Romance authors, scholars, and fans
- [Review: <em>Queer Experimental Literature: The Affective Politics of Bad Reading</em>, by Tyler Bradway](https://www.jprstudies.org/2019/07/review-queer-experimental-literature-the-affective-politics-of-bad-reading-by-tyler-bradway/) - In Queer Experimental Literature, Tyler Bradway stakes the claim that ‘by eliciting uncritical affective responses in readers, queer experimental literature … strikes at the disembodied model of critical reading and its heteronormative social imaginary’ (p. xxxiv). Experimental literature, for Bradway’s purposes, covers a range of authors from William S. Burroughs to Jeanette Winterson, whose works
- [Love’s ‘Schema and Correction’:  A Queer Twist on a General Principle](https://www.jprstudies.org/2016/07/loves-schema-and-correction-a-queer-twist-on-a-general-principleby-lynne-pearce/) - They had stood that way for a long time in front of the fire, its burning tossing ruddy chunks of light, the shadow of their bodies a single column against the rock . . . Stars bit through the wavy heat layers above the fire. Ennis’s breath came slow and quiet, he hummed, rocked a
- [“You and I are humans, and there is something complicated between us”: <em>Untamed</em> and queering the heterosexual historical romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2016/07/you-and-i-are-humans-and-there-is-something-complicated-between-us-untamed-and-queering-the-heterosexual-historical-romanceby-jodi-mcalister/) - Untamed by Anna Cowan was one of the most keenly anticipated and polarising historical romances of 2013. A debut novel from an Australian author, it won Favourite Historical Romance at the 2013 Australian Romance Readers Awards,[1] as well as netting Cowan the Favourite New Romance Author award.[2] It attracted rave reviews from some readers, but
- [Resuscitating the Undead Queer in Stephanie Meyer’s <em>Twilight</em> Saga](https://www.jprstudies.org/2016/07/resuscitating-the-undead-queer-in-stephanie-meyers-twilight-sagaby-jami-mcfarland/) - ‘…the vampire is a queer figure because it is disruptive; the vampire breaks down categories, transgresses boundaries, and upsets the very premises upon which systems of normality are structured. At least this is true of most vampires. In 2005, Stephanie Meyer [End Page 1] introduced the Twilight series, which valorized a family of vampires who clearly
- [Piratical Pleasures:  Female Dominance and Children’s Literature as Romance in ABC’s <em>Once Upon a Time</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2016/07/piratical-pleasures-female-dominance-and-childrens-literature-as-romance-in-abcs-once-upon-a-timeby-sunnie-rothenburger/) - In an early episode of ABC’s Once Upon a Time,[2] Snow White, Cinderella, and Red Riding Hood walk into a bar. Red is on the make, Cinderella is annoyed because her boyfriend has to work the late shift on Valentine’s Day, and Snow is angst-ridden over her ongoing affair with a married Prince Charming and
- [First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage:  (Homo)Normalizing Romance on American Television](https://www.jprstudies.org/2016/07/first-comes-love-then-comes-marriage-homonormalizing-romance-on-american-televisionby-bridget-kies/) - Bryan and David sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G First comes love, then comes inability to marry Then comes a stranger and an invasive medical procedure Then comes the baby in the baby carriage [End Page 1] This modified version of the children’s nursery rhyme, featured in the first episode of The New Normal (NBC, 2012-2013),
- [Review: <em>Men: Notes from an Ongoing Investigation</em>, by Laura Kipnis](https://www.jprstudies.org/2016/07/review-men-notes-from-an-ongoing-investigation-by-laura-kipnis/) - Notes from an Ongoing Man Last was not, to be fair, a great year for Laura Kipnis – or, from another perspective, it was an elegantly apt year for the author of How to Become a Scandal: Adventures in Bad Behavior (2010). In 2015 Kipnis became an international focus for discussions about sex & the
- [Review: <em>Making Meaning in Popular Romance Fiction: An Epistemology</em>, by Jayashree Kamblé](https://www.jprstudies.org/2016/07/review-making-meaning-in-popular-romance-fiction-an-epistemology-by-jayashree-kamble/) - Criticism and analysis within the field of popular romance studies have frequently been performed from a feminist or sociological point of view, primarily focusing on the heroine as the central and determining figure for examination – often read as a means to enable the female reader to “satisfy vicariously those psychological needs created in her
- [Review: <em>Love Between the Covers</em>,  produced, written, and directed by Laurie Kahn](https://www.jprstudies.org/2016/07/review-love-between-the-covers-produced-written-and-directed-by-laurie-kahn/) - Australian universities and popular romance fiction may be moving towards their own Happily Ever After. Growing scholarly interest in romance fiction here includes presentations on romance fiction at large conferences, a special Australia issue of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies, and the award of a large Federal Government grant to study the genre worlds
- [Review: <em>An Imperialist Love Story: Desert Romances and the War on Terror</em>, by Amira Jarmakani](https://www.jprstudies.org/2016/07/review-an-imperialist-love-story-desert-romances-and-the-war-on-terror-by-amira-jarmakani/) - In recent years, there has been a surge of academic interest in the sheikh romance, or what some call “desert romance.” The term describes a small subgenre that appears primarily as category romance, in which the Western heroine finds herself at the mercy of a domineering Middle-Eastern sheikh; common conventions of the novels include captivity,
- [Review: <em>Reading the Bromance: Homosocial Relationships in Film and Television</em>, edited by Michael DeAngelis](https://www.jprstudies.org/2016/07/review-reading-the-bromance-homosocial-relationships-in-film-and-television-edited-by-michael-deangelis/) - Michael DeAngelis’s edited collection Reading the Bromance: Homosocial Relationships in Film and Television (2014) is a timely contribution to film scholarship on the subject of bromance in its various media iterations. The term bromance, bringing together ‘bro-’ with ‘romance’, is an attempt to capture the idea of a male intimacy that simultaneously quashes any potential
- [Review: <em>The Twilight of the Gothic? Vampire Fiction and the Rise of the Paranormal Romance</em>, by Joseph Crawford](https://www.jprstudies.org/2016/07/review-the-twilight-of-the-gothic-vampire-fiction-and-the-rise-of-the-paranormal-romance-by-joseph-crawford/) - Over the last few years, we have witnessed the publication of masses of books on the Twilight Saga, some addressed to the general public, others geared toward an academic audience (for example, Twilight and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality; The Twilight Mystique: Critical Essays on the Novels and Films; The Twilight Saga:
- [Review: <em>Existentialism and Romantic Love</em>, by Skye Cleary](https://www.jprstudies.org/2016/07/review-existentialism-and-romantic-love-by-skye-cleary/) - In her introduction to Existentialism and Romantic Love, nascent Australian scholar and writer Skye Cleary speaks directly to the motivations behind her book. Cleary seeks to set the record straight on the popular notion of modern love as it is articulated via the maze of popular internet dating sites, self-help books, and celebrity advice columns.
- [Review: <em>Reading from Behind: A Cultural Analysis of the Anus</em>, by Jonathan A. Allan](https://www.jprstudies.org/2016/07/review-reading-from-behind-a-cultural-analysis-of-the-anus-by-jonathan-a-allan/) - Romancing the Bottom: Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow. When was the last time you thought about your anus? I mean, really thought about it. Analyzed it. If it’s been a while, here’s the book to get you going. I tried to remember any previous analysis of the significance of the anus to
- [“Ravished by Vikings”:  The Pre-modern and the Paranormal in Viking Romance Fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/2016/07/ravished-by-vikings-the-pre-modern-and-the-paranormal-in-viking-romance-fictionby-kim-wilkins/) - [End Page 1] Maggie realized then, if she had not already, that this was not a modern man who did things according to politically correct rules. He was a Viking warrior with savage sexual appetites and barbarian ways of seduction. An uncivilized lover. She would have him no other way. (Hill 4474) The quotation above,
- [When Sleeping Beauty Wakes: Spectacle and Romantic Fantasy In <em>Twilight</em> (2008)](https://www.jprstudies.org/2016/07/when-sleeping-beauty-wakes-spectacle-and-romantic-fantasy-in-twilight-2008by-athena-bellas/) - [End Page 1] In Twilight (2008), heroine Bella’s fantasy sequences repeatedly set out and revise the romance narrative of the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ fairy tale. In particular, these fantasy sequences revise the theme of spectacle in ways that challenge the conception of the feminine adolescent figure as romantic object, a passive spectacle to be scrutinized by
- [‘Falling in Love Intelligently’: Eugenic Love in the Progressive Era](https://www.jprstudies.org/2016/07/falling-in-love-intelligently-eugenic-love-in-the-progressive-eraby-susan-rensing/) - On February 21, 1915, the Chicago Tribune ran an appeal to readers for letters describing their experiences falling in love. With the promise of $1 for every letter published, the newspaper asked its audience to describe what attracted them most to their beloved. “Was it a wayward curl, a roguish eye, a dimple or an
- [<b>Editor's Note: Issue 5.2</b>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2016/07/editors-note-issue-5-2/) - Just over a year ago, the Journal of Popular Romance Studies was approached by an academic publisher interested in adding us to their stable of scholarly journals. This inquiry sparked a conflicted discussion here at JPRS. Should we shift to a more traditional publishing format and subscription model? Would this attract more submissions, raise our
- [Love, Limb-Loosener: Encounters in Chimamanda Adichie’s <em>Americanah</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2017/04/love-limb-loosener-encounters-in-chimamanda-adichies-americanahby-jennifer-leetsch/) - [End Page 1] In Greek the act of love is a mingling (mignumi) and desire melts the limbs (lusimelēs) (Sappho, Fr. 130). Boundaries of body, categories of thought, are confounded. The god who melts limbs proceeds to break the lover (damnatai) as would a foe on the epic battlefield: Oh comrade, the limb-loosener crushes me:
- [Love and its Contradictions: Feminist Women’s Resistance Strategies in their Love Narratives](https://www.jprstudies.org/2017/04/love-and-its-contradictions-feminist-womens-resistance-strategies-in-their-love-narrativesby-nagore-garcia-fernandez/) - Introduction I was first attracted to love as a topic of research because I saw other feminist female friends as well as myself struggling with it. There was something jarring about love and feminists, because we seemed to be spending more time criticizing the stereotyped romantic narratives seen in Hollywood films rather than sharing the
- [Feminist Researcher Wishes to Meet Romantic Subject: The “Case” of Mrs. F.](https://www.jprstudies.org/2017/04/feminist-researcher-wishes-to-meet-romantic-subject-the-case-of-mrs-f-by-susan-ostrov-weisser/) - [End Page 1] The field of Critical Love Studies is a vigorous and burgeoning one, drawing from multiple disciplines, with or without a feminist point of view. While its diversity of perspectives and methods is certainly a strength of the field, Lynne Pearce has pointed out “the extent to which the social sciences, literary studies
- [Loving over Skype: Tactile Viewing, Emotional Atmospheres and Video Calling](https://www.jprstudies.org/2017/04/loving-over-skype-tactile-viewing-emotional-atmospheres-and-video-callingby-yvonne-clarke-salt/) - [End Page 1] Introduction I meet Camilla and Rolf at an independent café on a weekday morning in the El Portal area of Barcelona. Camilla is a 29-year-old American who came to Barcelona as a student, and who stayed on so that she and Rolf could pursue their relationship. She now works for a web-based
- [Love is what people say it is: Performativity and Narrativity in Critical Love Studies](https://www.jprstudies.org/2017/04/love-is-what-people-say-it-is-performativity-and-narrativity-in-critical-love-studiesby-michael-gratzke/) - [End Page 1] In this article I will outline the objectives of Critical Love Studies, their grounding in a wide range of critical theory, a multi-disciplinary methodology, and finally gives an example of practical application in literary scholarship and participatory community research into experiences of love in the human lifespan. In so doing, I will
- [Review: <em>Women and Erotic Fiction. Critical Essays on Genres, Markets and Readers</em>, edited by Kristen Phillips](https://www.jprstudies.org/2017/04/review-women-and-erotic-fiction-critical-essays-on-genres-markets-and-readers-edited-by-kristen-phillips/) - Today we are seeing a growing interest in erotic literature for women. I am thinking about, for example, Catherine M. Roach’s Happily Ever After: The Romance Story in Popular Culture, where one chapter argues for an understanding of popular romance novels as feminist pornography (2016) and Elin Abrahamsson’s upcoming doctoral thesis on romance novels and
- [Review: <em>Representing Difference in the Medieval and Modern Orientalist Romance</em>, by Amy Burge](https://www.jprstudies.org/2017/04/review-representing-difference-in-the-medieval-and-modern-orientalist-romance-by-amy-burge/) - There has been a considerable volume of work produced on the sheikh romance in recent years, including two other book-length studies (both of which have been reviewed in this journal): Hsu-Ming Teo’s Desert Passions: Orientalism and Romance Novels (2012) and Amira Jarmakani’s An Imperialist Love Story: Desert Romances and the War on Terror (2015). Jarmakani
- [Marble Under a Strange Spell: St. John Rivers’ "Long-Cherished Scheme" to Wed Jane Eyre](https://www.jprstudies.org/2017/09/marble-under-a-strange-spell-st-john-rivers-long-cherished-scheme-to-wed-jane-eyreby-michelle-thurlow/) - Though long since promoted to that lofty category “literature,” Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre nevertheless holds pride of place in any genealogy of the romance novel (Osland 85). Authoritative surveys of the romance novel’s development such as Pamela Regis’s Natural History of the Romance Novel (85-91) and Kristin Ramsdell’s Romance Fiction: A Guide to the Genre
- [Troubleshooting Post-9/11 America: Religion, Racism, and Stereotypes in Suzanne Brockmann’s <em>Into the Night</em> and <em>Gone Too Far</em><br/>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2017/09/troubleshooting-post-911-america-religion-racism-and-stereotypes-in-suzanne-brockmanns-into-the-night-and-gone-too-farby-kecia-ali/) - In the years since 2001, the number of “desert,” “sheik,” or “Orientalist” romance novels published has “exponentially increased” (Burge 182).[1] Alongside the greater prominence of soldier-heroes (Kamblé, Making Meaning), including those engaged in a fictionalized Middle East/Muslim world, these romances illustrate the central place of America’s so-called War on Terror in popular fantasies and anxieties.
- [<b>Editor's Note: Volume 6</b>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/02/editors-note-volume-6/) - Volume 6 of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies marks a shift in our publication schedule. Rather than publish twice a year, on the model of a print journal, we have shifted to publishing our regular run of essays, book reviews, and other material on a rolling basis, as material makes its way through peer
- [Review: <em>Romance and Readership in Twentieth-Century France: Love Stories</em>, by Diana Holmes](https://www.jprstudies.org/2010/08/review-romance-and-readership-in-twentieth-century-france-love-stories-by-diana-holmes/) - Despite persistent critical disapproval, the mass-market romance has tenaciously remained one of the most popular literary genres of the last century. Its overwhelmingly female authorship and readership make the romance novel an ideal compass by which to trace real women’s concerns and imaginations over the last hundred years. In her clear and compact study, Romance
- [There Were Three of Us in this Biography, So it Was a Bit Crowded: The Biographer as Suitor and the Rhetoric of Romance in <em>Diana: Her True Story</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2010/08/“there-were-three-of-us-in-this-biography-so-it-was-a-bit-crowded-the-biographer-as-suitor-and-the-rhetoric-of-romance-in-diana-her-true-story”-by-giselle-bastin/) - A photograph of a young Lady Diana Spencer provides another image of English romance. She is shown reading a novel by her step-grandmother, Barbara Cartland, but there is not just one book in the picture; at least five more are strewn around, all Barbara Cartlands. It is as though Diana is involved in dreamy but
- [Historicizing <em>The Sheik</em>: Comparisons of the British Novel and the American Film](https://www.jprstudies.org/2010/08/historicizing-the-sheik-comparisons-of-the-british-novel-and-the-american-film-by-hsu-ming-teo/) - In 1919 a romance novel by a little-known Derbyshire woman was published, featuring the story of an aristocratic but tomboyish English virgin who, in her travels through French colonial Algeria, is kidnapped by an Arab sheik and raped many times. She eventually falls in love with this “brute” of an Oriental “native” (whom her brother
- [Review: <em>Reading Nora Roberts</em>, by Mary Ellen Snodgrass](https://www.jprstudies.org/2010/08/review-reading-nora-roberts-by-mary-ellen-snodgrass/) - In the landmark 1997 Paradoxa special issue on popular romance, Pamela Regis and Kay Mussell both noted that the study of individual romance authors was needed for the further development and consolidation of Popular Romance Studies as a critical field. (Mussell 10, Regis 146) Such single-author studies would effectively counter the stereotype that popular romance
- [Getting a Good Man to Love: Popular Romance Fiction and the Problem of Patriarchy](https://www.jprstudies.org/2010/08/getting-a-good-man-to-love-popular-romance-fiction-and-the-problem-of-patriarchy-by-catherine-roach/) - The “story of romance” is the guiding text offered by contemporary American culture, and more generally the culture of the modern West, on the subject of how women and men (should) relate: find your One True Love—your one-and-only—and live happily ever after.[1] To the ancient and perennial question of how to define and live the
- [A Little Extra Bite: Dis/Ability and Romance in Tanya Huff and Charlaine Harris’s Vampire Fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/2010/08/a-little-extra-bite-disability-and-romance-in-tanya-huff-and-charlaine-harris-vampire-fiction-by-kathleen-miller/) - With the phenomenal commercial success of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series and the profits earned internationally by the Swedish art-house film Let the Right One In, vampires—and more specifically, vampire-human romance narratives—have become big business. Demand for such works has prompted numerous publishers and media conglomerates to “stake” their claim to this burgeoning genre. And while
- [Chamorro WWII Romances: Combating Erasure with Tales of Survival and Vitality](https://www.jprstudies.org/2019/07/chamorro-wwii-romances-combating-erasure-with-tales-of-survival-and-vitalityby-carolina-fernandez-rodriguez/) - [End Page 1] 1. “Representational theft”: The academic erasure of Chamorro/Chamoru literature Current US literary studies often fail to pay attention to the literatures produced in the US Pacific territories (Guam/Guåhan, Northern Mariana Islands, Virgin Islands and American Samoa),[1] which results in an effective form of “academic erasure” of those literatures, the people who live
- [Thoroughly Modern Mina: Romance, History, and the <em>Dracula</em> Pastiche](https://www.jprstudies.org/2019/07/thoroughly-modern-mina-romance-history-and-the-dracula-pasticheby-miriam-elizabeth-burstein/) - [End Page 1] Not content to remain in the nineteenth century, Bram Stoker’s Dracula continues to stalk his prey through endless pastiches, parodies, and revisionist sagas. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century alone, the Count has been everything from the villain lurking in the library of Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian (2005) to the paradoxical
- [Review: <em>Romance Fiction and American Culture: Love as the Practice of Freedom?</em>, edited by William A. Gleason and Eric Murphy Selinger](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/05/review-romance-fiction-and-american-culture-love-as-the-practice-of-freedom-edited-by-william-a-gleason-and-eric-murphy-selinger/) - William A. Gleason and Eric Murphy Selinger’s collection Romance Fiction and American Culture: Love as the Practice of Freedom? came out of a 2009 conference at Princeton. The title of the collection (and of the conference) comes from bell hooks’ “Love as the Practice of Freedom” (1994). In her essay, hooks argues that “the moment
- [Review: <em>Heartthrobs: A History of Women and Desire</em>, by Carol Dyhouse](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/05/review-heartthrobs-a-history-of-women-and-desire-by-carol-dyhouse/) - Carol Dyhouse opens Heartthrobs: A History of Women and Desire with the canonical Freudian question: “What did women want?” (1) The question itself is recorded in Ernest Jones’ biography of Freud. It is reported that Freud told Marie Bonaparte: “The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able
- [Review: <em>Island Genres, Genre Islands: Conceptualisation and Representation in Popular Fiction</em>, by Ralph Crane and Lisa Fletcher](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/07/review-island-genres-genre-islands-conceptualisation-and-representation-in-popular-fiction-by-ralph-crane-and-lisa-fletcher/) - Like a cruise liner, Crane and Fletcher’s Island Genres, Genre Islands takes its readers on a journey around various genre islands, making brief stops at selected ports. While the cruise experience would be enriched by disembarking from the ship and spending more time onshore at crime atoll, thriller island, the isle of popular romance, and
- [Review: <em>Race and Popular Fantasy Literature: Habits of Whiteness</em>, by Helen Young](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/10/review-race-and-popular-fantasy-literature-habits-of-whiteness-by-helen-young/) - That popular romance has a racism problem will not be news to anyone who’s been paying attention. Big publishers fail hard at inclusion. The Romance Writers Association (RWA) has a history of marginalizing writers of color, as do many review sites. Some of the genre’s bestsellers include offensive stereotypes while others imagine implausibly lily-white worlds.
- [Review: <em>Cupcakes, Pinterest and Ladyporn: Feminized Popular Culture in the Early Twenty-First Century</em>, edited by Elana Levine](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/10/review-cupcakes-pinterest-and-ladyporn-feminized-popular-culture-in-the-early-twenty-first-century-edited-by-elana-levine/) - Scholarship on feminized popular culture in this century must evolve with shifting definitions of the term “woman” as well as the influence of post-feminism, which adds a complex layer to conventional expectations of femininity. This is one of the issues with which Cupcakes, Pinterest and Ladyporn engages, set out in Elana Levine’s comprehensive introduction. Levine
- [Review: <em>Human in Death: Morality and Mortality in J. D. Robb's Novels</em>, by Kecia Ali](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/12/review-human-in-death-morality-and-mortality-in-j-d-robbs-novels-by-kecia-ali/) - The importance of Nora Roberts to the popular romance genre and, in fact, to the publishing industry, can hardly be overstated. She published her first romance with Harlequin in 1975. She has since has published over 215 books. Her every release in the past nineteen years has hit the New York Times bestseller list. Justifiably
- [Review: <em>Making Modern Love: Sexual Narratives and Identities in Interwar Britain</em>, by Lisa Z. Sigel; <em>Women’s Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain, 1918–1939: The Interwar Period</em>, edited by Catherine Clay, Maria DiCenzo, Barbara Green, and Fiona Hackney](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/12/review-making-modern-love-sexual-narratives-and-identities-in-interwar-britain-by-lisa-z-sigel-womens-periodicals-and-print-culture-in-britain-1918-1939-the-interwar-period-ed/) - The continued rise of periodical studies has been a rich addition to the research landscape, attracting a range of scholars to this interdisciplinary area. Sean Latham and Robert Scholes, writing in 2006, called for researchers “to invent the tools and institutional structures necessary to engage the diversity, complexity, and coherence of modern periodical culture” (530).
- [Review: <em>The Popular Culture of Romantic Love in Australia</em>, edited by Hsu-Ming Teo](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/12/review-the-popular-culture-of-romantic-love-in-australia-edited-by-hsu-ming-teo/) - Scholarship into the culture of romantic love has tended to put an emphasis on defining the constitutive elemental concepts (culture and romantic love) and answering specific questions to which their combination gives rise. Hsu-Ming Teo’s edited collection, The Popular Culture of Romantic Love in Australia, taps into these debates strategically; the concept of culture is
- [Review: <em>New Directions in Popular Fiction: Genre, Distribution, Reproduction</em>, edited by Ken Gelder](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/12/review-new-directions-in-popular-fiction-genre-distribution-reproduction-edited-by-ken-gelder/) - New Directions in Popular Fiction is an omnifocal deep dive into specific histories, genres, locations, and formats within the scope of popular fiction publishing. The collection is divided into two sections. ‘Histories of Popular Genres’ includes case studies of particular genres that, as a whole, comprise an interesting yet fragmented history of popular fiction writers,
- [Review: <em>Salaam, Love: American Muslim Men on Love, Sex, and Intimacy</em>, edited by Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/12/review-salaam-love-american-muslim-men-on-love-sex-and-intimacy-edited-by-ayesha-mattu-and-nura-maznavi/) - Romantic love and the religion of Islam have often been combined in western popular fiction to create the necessary element of the “exotic.” This is most evident in the ubiquity of desert settings and the sheikh protagonists in category romance novels. Popular romance studies has shown a considerable interest in sheikh romances, exploring the myriad
- [The Stable Muslim Love Triangle – Triangular Desire in African American Muslim Romance Fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/11/the-stable-muslim-love-triangle-triangular-desire-in-african-american-muslim-romance-fictionby-layla-abdullah-poulos/) - Romance fiction explores culturally-specific notions of intimacy. Because it portrays a group’s conventions about love and amorousness, it can provide outsiders glimpses of norms and practices. Authors can describe and critique features of a given social context—such as racism or religious prejudice—in ways that inform outsiders and, at the same time, [End Page 1] allow
- [Murder to Marriage: Love and the Evolution of The Killers](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/10/murder-to-marriage-love-and-the-evolution-of-the-killersby-tosha-r-taylor/) - The Killers occupy a contentious place in contemporary music. Their emergence onto the popular music scene in 2004 was characterized by a fusion of rock, “lo-fi fuzz” (Prevatt, qtd. in Keene 36), synth-pop, and new wave revival. The band’s early visual aesthetic, mostly embodied through the stage persona of frontman Brandon Flowers, gave conspicuous nods
- [The Nature of Love in the Work of Leonard Cohen](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/10/the-nature-of-love-in-the-work-of-leonard-cohenby-jiri-mesic/) - What is love according to Leonard Cohen? “It is in love that we are made; / In love we disappear,” Leonard Cohen sings after having been abandoned by the “Crown of Light, O Darkened One” with whom he experienced a momentary union (“Boogie Street”). Love is seen as a force which chooses the singer to
- [L’amour à l’espagnole dans les chansons du groupe Mecano (1981-1992) : entre post-Movida et <i>mainstream</i><br/>Spanish love in the songs of Mecano (1981-1992): between post-Movida and mainstream](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/10/lamour-a-lespagnole-dans-les-chansons-du-groupe-mecano-1981-1992-entre-post-movida-et-mainstreamby-emmanuel-le-vagueresse/) - [End Page 1] […] [L’]importance accordée à la représentation étalée au grand jour […] d’un corpus représentatif de chansons à succès ne se justifie pas seulement par des nécessités documentaires ou on ne sait quelle complaisance pour la « facilité » : elle part du constat que nos conduites sont incessamment modelées et remodelées par l’imagerie ambiante […]
- [Madrid, « école de chaleur[1]  » : l’amour pop-rock dans le Madrid de la <i>Movida</i><br/>Madrid "school of heat": pop-rock love in Movida-era Madrid](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/10/madrid-ecole-de-chaleur1-lamour-pop-rock-dans-le-madrid-de-la-movidaby-magali-dumousseau-lesquer/) - [End Page 1] Le rock and roll arrive à Madrid dans les années cinquante grâce aux soldats nord-américains en poste dans les bases militaires implantées près de la capitale à partir de 1953. Il s’agit de chansons en langue étrangère empreintes de nouveaux codes musicaux et culturels qui diffèrent du folklore et des chansons populaires
- [Par-delà l’ « amour importun » :  voix et figures de l’amour chez Eiffel<br/>Beyond "unwelcome love": voices and images of love in the music of Eiffel](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/10/par-dela-l-amour-importun-voix-et-figures-de-lamour-chez-eiffelby-nathalie-vincent-arnaud/) - [End Page 1] Introduction : chansons trouées Dans un chapitre de son ouvrage De la culture rock qu’il dédie aux « interstices » et dont le point d’orgue est un « appel à la déviance » (260) comme offrant « des possibilités de vie nouvelles, des rapports au monde inédits » (244), Claude Chastagner écrit : […] l’essentiel de ce que nous définissons
- [<b>Editor's Note: Volume 7</b>](https://www.jprstudies.org/2019/02/editors-note-volume-7/) - Looking back at Volume 7 of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies, I am struck not only by how capacious the field of popular romance studies can be, but by how much work still needs to be done. On the one hand, this issue includes three essays introducing new, largely unexplored areas related to popular
- [Rewriting the Romance: Emotion Work and Consent in Arranged Marriage Fanfiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/2018/07/rewriting-the-romance-emotion-work-and-consent-in-arranged-marriage-fanfictionby-milena-popova/) - In this paper, I examine arranged marriage slash fiction – a sub-genre of fanfiction which focuses on same-gender relationships and is widely acknowledged within the online [End Page 1] fanfiction community to be a close cousin of, and share readership with, Regency-setting romance novels, particularly those featuring marriages of convenience. Using theories of meaning creation
- [Can She Have It All? Pregnancy Narratives in Contemporary Category Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/2019/03/can-she-have-it-all-pregnancy-narratives-in-contemporary-category-romanceby-annika-rosanowski/) - Imagine a pregnant woman. Is she overweight? Does she look like she was too tired to care about the clothes she put on? Is she waddling around on swollen feet? The answer to [End Page 1] all of these questions is most likely “no.” Representations of pregnancy in Western cultures currently revolve around pregnancy as
- [Review: <em>Love and War: How Militarism Shapes Sexuality and Romance</em>, by Tom Digby](https://www.jprstudies.org/2019/03/review-love-and-war-how-militarism-shapes-sexuality-and-romance-by-tom-digby/) - In this compilation of a series of his talks, feminist philosopher Tom Digby seeks to demonstrate that war-reliant societies are steeped in “cultural militarism,” one result of which is that they venerate heterosexuality but cast men and women as “opposite sexes” engaged in a battle. Such societies build their military might through structuring interpersonal relations
- [Review: <em>Modern Romance</em>, by Aziz Ansari, with Eric Klinenberg; <em>Is Monogamy Dead?</em>, by Rosie Wilby; <em>How to Go Steady</em>, by Jacque Nodell](https://www.jprstudies.org/2019/03/review-modern-romance-by-aziz-ansari-with-eric-klinenberg-is-monogamy-dead-by-rosie-wilby-how-to-go-steady-by-jacque-nodell/) - The literary fields of sociology, self-help, history, and popular culture have, for a long period, produced books about love and romance. The three titles above offer a more humorous, informal look at modern practices of love, dating, and relationships. Two are written by comedians—Ansari and Wilby—and Nodell’s book draws on historical content from American romance

## Pages

- [About the Journal](https://www.jprstudies.org/) - The Journal of Popular Romance Studies is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal publishing concise and well-written contributions to the study of popular romance media (e.g., love songs; romantic fiction and chick-lit; romance in film and TV, in comics and graphic novels, in memoir and life-writing, in fanfic and other forms of transformative culture, etc.).
- [<em>JPRS</em> Open Peer Review Pilot](https://www.jprstudies.org/jprs-open-peer-review-pilot/) - Throughout 2022-2024, JPRS will be piloting a new peer review process. The pilot is opt-in – our current double-blind review policy will remain in place by default. The following outlines the pilot policy, how you can opt-in, and how we will be reviewing the pilot. What is the difference between double blind, single blind, and
- [Volumes](https://www.jprstudies.org/issues/) - Early Access (2026) Early Access Pieces Volume 15 (2026) Issue 15.1 Volume 14 (2025) Editor's Note General Articles Special Issue: (Un)defined YA / Series / Romance Notes and Queries Book Reviews Volume 13 (2024) Editor's Note General Articles Notes and Queries Book Reviews Volume 12 (2023) Editor's Note General Articles Notes and Queries Book Reviews
- [Issue 15.1](https://www.jprstudies.org/issue-15-1/) - Editor’s Note by Amy Burge General Articles Notes and Queries Book Reviews
- [Special Issue Call for Papers](https://www.jprstudies.org/submissions/special-issue-call-for-papers/) - JPRS publishes special issues on a range of topics relating to the study of romantic love and its representations. These issues contain at least 3 articles on their shared topic, as well as an introduction by the editor(s). If you are interested in creating or editing a special issue, contact the Special Issues Editor (special.issues@jprstudies.org)
- [Early Access](https://www.jprstudies.org/early-access/) - General Articles Notes & Queries Book Reviews
- [Editorial Policies](https://www.jprstudies.org/submissions/editorial-policies/) - 1 Instructions to Authors 1.1 What we publish Manuscripts should be concise and well-written contributions to the study of popular romance fiction and/or the logics, institutions, and social practices of romantic love in global popular culture. JPRS also publishes reports from the classroom, outlining techniques and tools, syllabus models, and practical pieces on the teaching
- [Submissions](https://www.jprstudies.org/submissions/) - What we publish The Journal of Popular Romance Studies is an interdisciplinary journal publishing concise and well-written contributions to the study of popular romance media (e.g., love songs; romantic fiction and chick-lit; romance in film and TV, in comics and graphic novels, in memoir and life-writing, in fanfic and other forms of transformative culture, etc.).
- [Book Review Submissions](https://www.jprstudies.org/submissions/book-reviews/) - A book review should provide a useful summary of the text and evaluate its achievement in and relevance to popular romance studies. Book reviews may be short pieces on individual works (1,000-1,500 words), longer considerations (2,500-3,500 words), or review-essays which discuss a group of related texts (over 3,500 words). Book reviews should conform to the journal
- [Notes and Queries Section](https://www.jprstudies.org/submissions/notes-and-queries-section/) - The Journal of Popular Romance Studies invites scholars, readers, and writers to send in notes, questions, and answers on topics of concern to the study of popular romance. This section hopes to create a more immediate dialogue on issues and trends in the field. Moreover, it offers the opportunity for our community of scholars to
- [Special Issue: (Un)defined YA / Series / Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/special-issue-undefined-ya-series-romance/)
- [Editorial Board](https://www.jprstudies.org/editorial-board/) - Editorial Team: Executive Editor: Amy Burge, University of Birmingham, UK (term ends March 2028) Managing Editor for General Issues: Christina Vogels, Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau - Auckland University of Technology (term ends October 2028) Managing Editor for Special Issues and Forums: Suzanne Mpouli, Université de Paris, France (term ends July 2026) Section
- [Journal of Popular Romance Studies Style Guide](https://www.jprstudies.org/journal-of-popular-romance-studies-style-guide/) - Formatting of articles Font: any serif or sans serif font (e.g. Arial, Times New Roman), size 12 and double-spaced. Notes: any notes should be included as footnotes rather than endnotes. Margins: should be at least 1 inch (2.5 cm). Spelling: Either British-English (as per Cambridge/Oxford English Dictionary) or American-English spelling is permitted. Spelling should be
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- [Volume 14: Book Reviews](https://www.jprstudies.org/volume-14-book-reviews/)
- [Volume 14: Notes and Queries](https://www.jprstudies.org/volume-14-notes-and-queries/)
- [Volume 14: General Articles](https://www.jprstudies.org/volume-14-general-articles/)
- [Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Popular Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/teaching-and-learning/)
- [Pedagogy: Notes on Teaching Popular Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/pedagogy-notes-on-teaching-popular-romance/)
- [Instigations](https://www.jprstudies.org/instigations/)
- [Volume 13: Notes and Queries](https://www.jprstudies.org/volume-13-notes-and-queries/)
- [Volume 13: Book Reviews](https://www.jprstudies.org/volume-13-book-reviews/)
- [Volume 13: General Articles](https://www.jprstudies.org/volume-13-general-articles/)
- [Volume 12: Book Reviews](https://www.jprstudies.org/volume-12-book-reviews/)
- [Volume 12: Notes and Queries](https://www.jprstudies.org/volume-12-notes-and-queries/)
- [Volume 12: General Articles](https://www.jprstudies.org/volume-12-general-articles/)
- [Volume 11: Book Reviews](https://www.jprstudies.org/issues/volume-11-general-articles-2/volume-11-book-reviews/)
- [Volume 11: Notes and Queries](https://www.jprstudies.org/volume-11-notes-and-queries/)
- [Special Issue: Sexting](https://www.jprstudies.org/issues/volume-11-general-articles-2/special-issue-sexting/)
- [Special Issue: Black Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/issues/volume-11-general-articles-2/special-issue-black-romance/) - Black Romance Podcast Interviews with Writers Producer and Editor: Julie E. Moody-Freeman Sound Editor: Juelle Daley Transcriptions: Jennifer Ogwumike and Jessica Williams
- [Topics of Interest](https://www.jprstudies.org/submissions/topics-of-interest/) - Ongoing topics of interest to the journal include: Romance on the World Stage: romantic love in popular culture from East and South Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East Romance in translation: cross-cultural exchanges or distribution of romantic popular media Romance and the Digital Age: authors, readers, Web sites, blogs, digital publishing Re-reading the
- [Volume 11: General Articles](https://www.jprstudies.org/issues/volume-11-general-articles-2/)
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- [Volume 10: General Articles](https://www.jprstudies.org/issues/volume-10-general-articles/)
- [Special Issue: <em>The Sheik</em>](https://www.jprstudies.org/issues/volume-9/special-issue-the-sheik/) - Introduction Introduction to the special issue on The Sheik Amy Burge Research Articles The Oriental Beast: The Sheik and Fairy Tales Pauline Suwanban Garçon manqué: A Queer Rereading (of) The Sheik Jessica Taylor Olive Skin Chocolate Eyes: The Legacy of The Sheik on Descriptive Patterns of the Italian Romantic Hero in Harlequin Short Contemporaries Francesca
- [Volume 9: General Articles](https://www.jprstudies.org/issues/volume-9/)
- [Special Issue: Romance Fiction in the International Marketplace](https://www.jprstudies.org/issues/volume-9/4531-2/)
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- [Issue 5.2: General Articles](https://www.jprstudies.org/issues/issue-5-2/)
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- [Special Issue: Queering Popular Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/issues/issue-5-2/special-issue-queering-popular-romance/)
- [Issue 5.1: General Articles](https://www.jprstudies.org/issues/issue-5-1/)
- [Issue 5.1: Book Reviews](https://www.jprstudies.org/issues/issue-5-1/issue-5-1-book-reviews/)
- [Special Issue: Romancing the Library](https://www.jprstudies.org/issues/issue-5-1/special-issue-romancing-the-library/)
- [Nothing But Good Times Ahead: A Special Forum on Jennifer Crusie](https://www.jprstudies.org/issues/issue-2-2/nothing-but-good-times-ahead-a-special-forum-on-jennifer-crusie/)
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- [Roundtable: <em>Reading the Romance</em> by Janice A. Radway](https://www.jprstudies.org/issues/issue-4-2/roundtable-reading-the-romance-by-janice-a-radway/)
- [Special Issue: The Popular Culture of Romantic Love in Australia](https://www.jprstudies.org/issues/issue-4-2/special-issue-the-popular-culture-of-romantic-love-in-australia/)
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- [Roundtable: <em>A Natural History of the Romance Novel</em> by Pamela Regis](https://www.jprstudies.org/issues/issue-3-2/roundtable-a-natural-history-of-the-romance-novel-by-pamela-regis/)
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## Tags

- [Laura Vivanco](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/laura-vivanco/)
- [Kyra Kramer](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/kyra-kramer/)
- [Catherine Roach](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/catherine-roach/)
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- [Jonathan Allan](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/jonathan-allan/)
- [Pam Rosenthal](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/pam-rosenthal/)
- [An Goris](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/an-goris/)
- [Pamela Regis](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/pamela-regis/)
- [Annie Brancky](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/annie-brancky/)
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- [Giselle Bastin](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/giselle-bastin/)
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- [the story of romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/the-story-of-romance/)
- [heterosexuality](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/heterosexuality/)
- [romance narrative](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/romance-narrative/)
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- [erotic faith](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/erotic-faith/)
- [Christianity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/christianity/)
- [happily-ever-after ending](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/happily-ever-after-ending/)
- [narrative eschatology](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/narrative-eschatology/)
- [sex-positive feminism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sex-positive-feminism/)
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- [transgressive sexuality](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/transgressive-sexuality/)
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- [Male Virginity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/male-virginity/)
- [popular romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/popular-romance/)
- [Jonathan A. Allan](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/jonathan-a-allan/)
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- [romance scholarship](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/romance-scholarship/)
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- [Chiho Nakagawa](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/chiho-nakagawa/)
- [Vampire fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/vampire-fiction/)
- [Twilight](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/twilight/)
- [Southern Vampire Mysteries](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/southern-vampire-mysteries/)
- [boundaries of self](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/boundaries-of-self/)
- [hero-villains](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/hero-villains/)
- [rhetoric](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/rhetoric/)
- [ethics](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/ethics/)
- [topoi](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/topoi/)
- [Janice A. Radway](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/janice-a-radway/)
- [Tania Modleski](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/tania-modleski/)
- [Kay Mussell](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/kay-mussell/)
- [Candy Tan](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/candy-tan/)
- [Sarah Wendell](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sarah-wendell/)
- [Ann Barr Snitow](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/ann-barr-snitow/)
- [Betty Kaklamanidou](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/betty-kaklamanidou/)
- [Greek cinematography](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/greek-cinematography/)
- [wedding](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/wedding/)
- [marriage](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/marriage/)
- [genre](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/genre/)
- [William Gleason](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/william-gleason/)
- [Beadle and Adams](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/beadle-and-adams/)
- [dime novels](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/dime-novels/)
- [story papers](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/story-papers/)
- [Belles and Beaux](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/belles-and-beaux/)
- [Girls of Today](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/girls-of-today/)
- [The New York Weekly Story-Teller](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/the-new-york-weekly-story-teller/)
- [paratext](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/paratext/)
- [practical romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/practical-romance/)
- [anti-romantic](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/anti-romantic/)
- [Artemis Lamprinou](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/artemis-lamprinou/)
- [culture](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/culture/)
- [translation norms](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/translation-norms/)
- [universal emotions](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/universal-emotions/)
- [popular romances](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/popular-romances/)
- [Greek language](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/greek-language/)
- [methodology](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/methodology/)
- [Boys’ love](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/boys’-love/)
- [Manga](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/manga/)
- [yaoi](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/yaoi/)
- [LGBTQ romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/lgbtq-romance/)
- [romance comics](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/romance-comics/)
- [Japan](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/japan/)
- [fan culture](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/fan-culture/)
- [readership studies](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/readership-studies/)
- [Johansen Quijano](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/johansen-quijano/)
- [Antonia Levi](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/antonia-levi/)
- [Mark McHarry](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/mark-mcharry/)
- [Dru Pagliassotti](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/dru-pagliassotti/)
- [Sweet Valley High](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sweet-valley-high/)
- [young adult romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/young-adult-romance/)
- [reader interviews](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/reader-interviews/)
- [reading behavior](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/reading-behavior/)
- [Amy S. Pattee](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/amy-s-pattee/)
- [chick lit](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/chick-lit/)
- [Stephanie Harzewski](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/stephanie-harzewski/)
- [postfeminism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/postfeminism/)
- [Bridget Jones’ Diary](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/bridget-jones’-diary/)
- [Sex and the City](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sex-and-the-city/)
- [Suzanne Ferriss](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/suzanne-ferriss/)
- [American Studies](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/american-studies/)
- [emerging adulthood](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/emerging-adulthood/)
- [love](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/love/)
- [Jeremy Uecker](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/jeremy-uecker/)
- [Mark Regnerus](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/mark-regnerus/)
- [historiography](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/historiography/)
- [River Queen](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/river-queen/)
- [Vincent Ward](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/vincent-ward/)
- [colonialism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/colonialism/)
- [Maori](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/maori/)
- [captivity narrative](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/captivity-narrative/)
- [Titokowaru](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/titokowaru/)
- [Caroline Perrett](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/caroline-perrett/)
- [Roger Nicholson](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/roger-nicholson/)
- [Italian popular fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/italian-popular-fiction/)
- [Stefania Bertola](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/stefania-bertola/)
- [romanzo rosa](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/romanzo-rosa/)
- [media culture](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/media-culture/)
- [Italian chick lit](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/italian-chick-lit/)
- [Federica Balducci](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/federica-balducci/)
- [advertising](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/advertising/)
- [ageism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/ageism/)
- [body image](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/body-image/)
- [characterisation](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/characterisation/)
- [clothing](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/clothing/)
- [colour symbolism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/colour-symbolism/)
- [fashion](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/fashion/)
- [friendship](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/friendship/)
- [Delarivier Manley](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/delarivier-manley/)
- [Kimberly Baldus](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/kimberly-baldus/)
- [amatory fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/amatory-fiction/)
- [voyeurism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/voyeurism/)
- [gossip](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/gossip/)
- [liminal](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/liminal/)
- [popular romance fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/popular-romance-fiction/)
- [confidence games in fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/confidence-games-in-fiction/)
- [con artists in fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/con-artists-in-fiction/)
- [Christina A. Valeo](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/christina-a-valeo/)
- [anagnorisis](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/anagnorisis/)
- [Bataille](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/bataille/)
- [bed-trick](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/bed-trick/)
- [bodies](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/bodies/)
- [Anna Campbell](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/anna-campbell/)
- [Catherine Coulter](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/catherine-coulter/)
- [coercion](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/coercion/)
- [dialogue with the Other](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/dialogue-with-the-other/)
- [epistemology](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/epistemology/)
- [embodiment](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/embodiment/)
- [exchange](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/exchange/)
- [Patricia Gaffney](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/patricia-gaffney/)
- [identity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/identity/)
- [interrogation](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/interrogation/)
- [Carolyn Jewel](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/carolyn-jewel/)
- [Kathleen Woodiwiss](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/kathleen-woodiwiss/)
- [knowledge of the Other](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/knowledge-of-the-other/)
- [language](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/language/)
- [Levinas](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/levinas/)
- [mistaken identity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/mistaken-identity/)
- [narratology](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/narratology/)
- [Other](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/other/)
- [parody](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/parody/)
- [persuasion](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/persuasion/)
- [possession](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/possession/)
- [revelation](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/revelation/)
- [seduction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/seduction/)
- [speech](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/speech/)
- [Anne Stuart](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/anne-stuart/)
- [understanding as partial negation](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/understanding-as-partial-negation/)
- [violence](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/violence/)
- [violation](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/violation/)
- [forced seduction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/forced-seduction/)
- [authorship](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/authorship/)
- [Brownstein](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/brownstein/)
- [Crusie](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/crusie/)
- [defenses of romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/defenses-of-romance/)
- [empowerment](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/empowerment/)
- [fantasy](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/fantasy/)
- [hero](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/hero/)
- [heroine](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/heroine/)
- [metatextuality](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/metatextuality/)
- [Modleski](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/modleski/)
- [Quilliam](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/quilliam/)
- [Radway](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/radway/)
- [readers](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/readers/)
- [reading](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/reading/)
- [Reading the Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/reading-the-romance/)
- [Welcome to Temptation](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/welcome-to-temptation/)
- [Kate Moore](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/kate-moore/)
- [Eric Murphy Selinger](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/eric-murphy-selinger/)
- [Regis](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/regis/)
- [Hero as text](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/hero-as-text/)
- [Self-authoring heroine](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/self-authoring-heroine/)
- [Anyone But You](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/anyone-but-you/)
- [age](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/age/)
- [Bet Me](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/bet-me/)
- [fat](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/fat/)
- [food](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/food/)
- [menopause](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/menopause/)
- [nonconformity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/nonconformity/)
- [resistance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/resistance/)
- [Romancing Reality](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/romancing-reality/)
- [weight](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/weight/)
- [storytelling](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/storytelling/)
- [lying](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/lying/)
- [narrative form](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/narrative-form/)
- [constructivism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/constructivism/)
- [essentialism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/essentialism/)
- [Patricia Zakreski](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/patricia-zakreski/)
- [Laura M. Carpenter](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/laura-m-carpenter/)
- [sexual initiation](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sexual-initiation/)
- [Kate Monro](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/kate-monro/)
- [virginity loss](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/virginity-loss/)
- [sexual experience](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sexual-experience/)
- [Tamar Jeffers McDonald](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/tamar-jeffers-mcdonald/)
- [Séverine Olivier](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/severine-olivier/)
- [Agnès Caubet](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/agnes-caubet/)
- [romance reading](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/romance-reading/)
- [romance reader](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/romance-reader/)
- [French academic field](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/french-academic-field/)
- [Academic Libraries](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/academic-libraries/)
- [Popular Romance Collections](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/popular-romance-collections/)
- [Romantic Fiction Collections](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/romantic-fiction-collections/)
- [Collection Development](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/collection-development/)
- [Core Collection](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/core-collection/)
- [Queer](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/queer/)
- [lesbian](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/lesbian/)
- [wildness](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/wildness/)
- [power](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/power/)
- [consumerism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/consumerism/)
- [individualisation](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/individualisation/)
- [romanticisation of love](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/romanticisation-of-love/)
- [female friendship](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/female-friendship/)
- [female junior novel](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/female-junior-novel/)
- [Mary Stolz](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/mary-stolz/)
- [adolescent](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/adolescent/)
- [teenage](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/teenage/)
- [girls](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/girls/)
- [boys](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/boys/)
- [capital](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/capital/)
- [boy capital](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/boy-capital/)
- [commodity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/commodity/)
- [Cold War](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/cold-war/)
- [postwar](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/postwar/)
- [Pierre Bourdieu](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/pierre-bourdieu/)
- [Luce Irigaray](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/luce-irigaray/)
- [prom](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/prom/)
- [ring](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/ring/)
- [young adult literature](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/young-adult-literature/)
- [female gaze](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/female-gaze/)
- [power struggle](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/power-struggle/)
- [fan mail](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/fan-mail/)
- [romantic love](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/romantic-love/)
- [mind](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/mind/)
- [Catherine Belsey](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/catherine-belsey/)
- [evolution of romance scholarship](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/evolution-of-romance-scholarship/)
- [male bisexuality](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/male-bisexuality/)
- [Regency romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/regency-romance/)
- [dominance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/dominance/)
- [submission](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/submission/)
- [human sexuality](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/human-sexuality/)
- [social structure](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/social-structure/)
- [class](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/class/)
- [didacticism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/didacticism/)
- [history](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/history/)
- [literary merit](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/literary-merit/)
- [intertextuality](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/intertextuality/)
- [Venetia](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/venetia/)
- [quotation](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/quotation/)
- [reputation](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/reputation/)
- [Shakespeare](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/shakespeare/)
- [poetry](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/poetry/)
- [references](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/references/)
- [psychology research methods](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/psychology-research-methods/)
- [contemporary single-title romances](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/contemporary-single-title-romances/)
- [sexual script theory](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sexual-script-theory/)
- [1970s Argentine cinema](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/1970s-argentine-cinema/)
- [Leopoldo Torre Nilsson](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/leopoldo-torre-nilsson/)
- [gender constructions](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/gender-constructions/)
- [masculinities](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/masculinities/)
- [queer studies](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/queer-studies/)
- [media studies](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/media-studies/)
- [fan studies](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/fan-studies/)
- [digital culture](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/digital-culture/)
- [digital writing](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/digital-writing/)
- [fifty shades of grey](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/fifty-shades-of-grey/)
- [fan fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/fan-fiction/)
- [erotic romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/erotic-romance/)
- [Patrick Califia](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/patrick-califia/)
- [lesbian romance fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/lesbian-romance-fiction/)
- [lesbian sadomasochism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/lesbian-sadomasochism/)
- [Macho Sluts](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/macho-sluts/)
- [anti-pornography feminism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/anti-pornography-feminism/)
- [lesbian feminism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/lesbian-feminism/)
- [gender subversion](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/gender-subversion/)
- [Samois](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/samois/)
- [Mexican Golden Age Cinema](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/mexican-golden-age-cinema/)
- [female marriage](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/female-marriage/)
- [lesbian motherhood](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/lesbian-motherhood/)
- [sapphic romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sapphic-romance/)
- [post-revolutionary discourse](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/post-revolutionary-discourse/)
- [Latin Lover](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/latin-lover/)
- [Hispanicity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/hispanicity/)
- [Zorro](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/zorro/)
- [Antonio Banderas](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/antonio-banderas/)
- [Martin Campbell](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/martin-campbell/)
- [Isabel Allende](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/isabel-allende/)
- [Shrek](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/shrek/)
- [Contracorriente](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/contracorriente/)
- [Javier Fuentes-León](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/javier-fuentes-leon/)
- [Peruvian cinema](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/peruvian-cinema/)
- [New Queer Cinema](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/new-queer-cinema/)
- [renegotiating paternalism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/renegotiating-paternalism/)
- [abjection](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/abjection/)
- [the figure of the mother](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/the-figure-of-the-mother/)
- [white masculinity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/white-masculinity/)
- [Global Financial Crisis (GFC)](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/global-financial-crisis-gfc/)
- [Affect](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/affect/)
- [Mexican Cinema](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/mexican-cinema/)
- [Neoliberalism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/neoliberalism/)
- [Fernando Sariñana](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/fernando-sarinana/)
- [Antonio Serrano](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/antonio-serrano/)
- [Alfonso Cuarón](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/alfonso-cuaron/)
- [Mexico](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/mexico/)
- [novel](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/novel/)
- [20th century](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/20th-century/)
- [short story](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/short-story/)
- [music](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/music/)
- [Angela R. Toscano](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/angela-r-toscano/)
- [sentimentality](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sentimentality/)
- [C. J. Dennis](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/c-j-dennis/)
- [Raymond Longford](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/raymond-longford/)
- [gender of romantic love](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/gender-of-romantic-love/)
- [Bluebeard](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/bluebeard/)
- [Knowledge](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/knowledge/)
- [fairy tale](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/fairy-tale/)
- [Australasia](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/australasia/)
- [Loss](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/loss/)
- [Melancholia](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/melancholia/)
- [Movement](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/movement/)
- [Stasis](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/stasis/)
- [Australian Cinema](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/australian-cinema/)
- [Romantic Comedy/Drama](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/romantic-comedydrama/)
- [rural romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/rural-romance/)
- [working dogs](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/working-dogs/)
- [rural Australia](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/rural-australia/)
- [Rachael Treasure](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/rachael-treasure/)
- [gender inequality](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/gender-inequality/)
- [Australian love stories](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/australian-love-stories/)
- [colonial romance novel](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/colonial-romance-novel/)
- [“the Australian Girl”](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/the-australian-girl/)
- [British Empire](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/british-empire/)
- [Australian frontier/bush](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/australian-frontierbush/)
- [bangle](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/bangle/)
- [sentimental jewellery](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sentimental-jewellery/)
- [memory](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/memory/)
- [celebrity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/celebrity/)
- [Anne Gracie](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/anne-gracie/)
- [Australian popular fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/australian-popular-fiction/)
- [genre fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/genre-fiction/)
- [feminist criticism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/feminist-criticism/)
- [popular reading strategies](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/popular-reading-strategies/)
- [scholarship of teaching and learning](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/scholarship-of-teaching-and-learning/)
- [pedagogy](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/pedagogy/)
- [education](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/education/)
- [public library practices](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/public-library-practices/)
- [metadata](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/metadata/)
- [category romance fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/category-romance-fiction/)
- [public lending rights](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/public-lending-rights/)
- [readers’ advisory](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/readers-advisory/)
- [desert romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/desert-romance/)
- [Bath Tangle](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/bath-tangle/)
- [Marguerite Kaye](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/marguerite-kaye/)
- [activity orientation](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/activity-orientation/)
- [learning objectives](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/learning-objectives/)
- [Sheikh romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sheikh-romance/)
- [schedule planning](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/schedule-planning/)
- [post-9/11 era](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/post-911-era/)
- [Scottish romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/scottish-romance/)
- [Julie Garwood](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/julie-garwood/)
- [Kristen Ashley](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/kristen-ashley/)
- [Nalini Singh](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/nalini-singh/)
- [Lynn Raye Harris](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/lynn-raye-harris/)
- [Karen Richman](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/karen-richman/)
- [Sandra Marton](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sandra-marton/)
- [Barbara McMahon](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/barbara-mcmahon/)
- [Jane Porter](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/jane-porter/)
- [Maisey Yates](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/maisey-yates/)
- [Linda Conrad](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/linda-conrad/)
- [Linda Winstead Jones](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/linda-winstead-jones/)
- [Sharon Kendrick](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sharon-kendrick/)
- [digital library](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/digital-library/)
- [e-books](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/e-books/)
- [ethnicity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/ethnicity/)
- [multicultural](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/multicultural/)
- [OverDrive](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/overdrive/)
- [public libraries](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/public-libraries/)
- [romance fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/romance-fiction/)
- [Wisconsin Public Library Consortium](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/wisconsin-public-library-consortium/)
- [libraries](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/libraries/)
- [Chick Lit Jr.](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/chick-lit-jr/)
- [historical novels](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/historical-novels/)
- [young women's fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/young-womens-fiction/)
- [Frida Skybäck](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/frida-skyback/)
- [Scandinavian Chick Lit](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/scandinavian-chick-lit/)
- [religion](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/religion/)
- [kiss](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/kiss/)
- [theology](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/theology/)
- [The Matrix](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/the-matrix/)
- [Susan Elizabeth Phillips](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/susan-elizabeth-phillips/)
- [American romance fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/american-romance-fiction/)
- [Teaching and Learning](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/teaching-and-learning/)
- [television](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/television/)
- [Progressive Era](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/progressive-era/)
- [eugenics](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/eugenics/)
- [anti-feminism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/anti-feminism/)
- [sexual science](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sexual-science/)
- [Twilight series](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/twilight-series/)
- [Once Upon a Time](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/once-upon-a-time/)
- [romance and television](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/romance-and-television/)
- [pirates](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/pirates/)
- [domination](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/domination/)
- [children’s literature](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/childrens-literature/)
- [Peter Pan](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/peter-pan/)
- [female sadism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/female-sadism/)
- [BDSM](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/bdsm/)
- [Medievalism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/medievalism/)
- [Vikings in popular culture](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/vikings-in-popular-culture/)
- [popular fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/popular-fiction/)
- [post-feminism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/post-feminism/)
- [queer romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/queer-romance/)
- [cross-dressing](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/cross-dressing/)
- [alternate histories](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/alternate-histories/)
- [Anna Cowan](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/anna-cowan/)
- [Annie Proulx](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/annie-proulx/)
- [W.H. Gombrich](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/w-h-gombrich/)
- [schema and correction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/schema-and-correction/)
- [gestalt](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/gestalt/)
- [gaze theory](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/gaze-theory/)
- [adolescent girlhood](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/adolescent-girlhood/)
- [screen studies](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/screen-studies/)
- [sleeping beauty](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sleeping-beauty/)
- [spectacle](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/spectacle/)
- [teen film](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/teen-film/)
- [relationships](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/relationships/)
- [intimacy](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/intimacy/)
- [speech act theory](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/speech-act-theory/)
- [close reading](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/close-reading/)
- [narrative research](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/narrative-research/)
- [Critical Love Studies](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/critical-love-studies/)
- [women](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/women/)
- [narratives](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/narratives/)
- [resistance strategies](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/resistance-strategies/)
- [emotions](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/emotions/)
- [emotional geographies](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/emotional-geographies/)
- [online communication](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/online-communication/)
- [distance relationships](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/distance-relationships/)
- [Skype](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/skype/)
- [literature review](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/literature-review/)
- [boys' love](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/boys-love/)
- [Chimamanda Adichie](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/chimamanda-adichie/)
- [Anne Carson](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/anne-carson/)
- [postcolonial romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/postcolonial-romance/)
- [afro-diasporic literature](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/afro-diasporic-literature/)
- [love studies](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/love-studies/)
- [personal narrative](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/personal-narrative/)
- [life narrative](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/life-narrative/)
- [art](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/art/)
- [love stories](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/love-stories/)
- [Jane Eyre](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/jane-eyre/)
- [Charlotte Brontë](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/charlotte-bronte/)
- [St. John Rivers](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/st-john-rivers/)
- [Henry Nussey](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/henry-nussey/)
- [Victorian](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/victorian/)
- [false hero](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/false-hero/)
- [biographical criticism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/biographical-criticism/)
- [Suzanne Brockmann](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/suzanne-brockmann/)
- [Troubleshooters](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/troubleshooters/)
- [interracial relationships](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/interracial-relationships/)
- [Islam](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/islam/)
- [Muslims](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/muslims/)
- [stereotypes](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/stereotypes/)
- [military](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/military/)
- [sheikh](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sheikh/)
- [male oppression](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/male-oppression/)
- [(hetero)romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/heteroromance/)
- [gender hegemony](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/gender-hegemony/)
- [hegemonic masculinity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/hegemonic-masculinity/)
- [male femininities](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/male-femininities/)
- [pariah femininities](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/pariah-femininities/)
- [archives](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/archives/)
- [Romance Writers of America](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/romance-writers-of-america/)
- [Ray and Pat Browne Popular Culture Library](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/ray-and-pat-browne-popular-culture-library/)
- [diversity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/diversity/)
- [Layle Giusto](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/layle-giusto/)
- [Yolanda Greggs](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/yolanda-greggs/)
- [spirituality in music](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/spirituality-in-music/)
- [focalization](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/focalization/)
- [sexual consent](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sexual-consent/)
- [marriage of convenience](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/marriage-of-convenience/)
- [Espagne](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/espagne/)
- [Madrid](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/madrid/)
- [années 80](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/annees-80/)
- [Movida](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/movida/)
- [chansons d’amour](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/chansons-damour/)
- [pop-rock](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/pop-rock/)
- [1980s](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/1980s/)
- [Spain](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/spain/)
- [love songs](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/love-songs/)
- [mainstream](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/mainstream/)
- [Mecano](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/mecano/)
- [postmodernity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/postmodernity/)
- [postmodernité](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/postmodernite/)
- [punk](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/punk/)
- [désespérance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/desesperance/)
- [sexe](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sexe/)
- [marges](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/marges/)
- [despair](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/despair/)
- [margins](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/margins/)
- [Eiffel](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/eiffel/)
- [amour](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/amour/)
- [multiplicité](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/multiplicite/)
- [création](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/creation/)
- [multiplicity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/multiplicity/)
- [Leonard Cohen](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/leonard-cohen/)
- [song](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/song/)
- [mysticism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/mysticism/)
- [Kabbalah](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/kabbalah/)
- [Judaism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/judaism/)
- [Sufism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sufism/)
- [Muslim fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/muslim-fiction/)
- [Muslim romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/muslim-romance/)
- [Muslim literature](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/muslim-literature/)
- [love triangle](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/love-triangle/)
- [African American literature](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/african-american-literature/)
- [African American Muslim literature](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/african-american-muslim-literature/)
- [American Muslim fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/american-muslim-fiction/)
- [American Muslim culture](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/american-muslim-culture/)
- [African American Muslim culture](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/african-american-muslim-culture/)
- [black love](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/black-love/)
- [romance novels](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/romance-novels/)
- [triangular desire](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/triangular-desire/)
- [pregnancy](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/pregnancy/)
- [Harlequin Romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/harlequin-romance/)
- [Harlequin Presents](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/harlequin-presents/)
- [female body](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/female-body/)
- [Chamorro romances](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/chamorro-romances/)
- [World War II](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/world-war-ii/)
- [Spanish Imperialism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/spanish-imperialism/)
- [Japanese Imperialism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/japanese-imperialism/)
- [United States Imperialism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/united-states-imperialism/)
- [literary activism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/literary-activism/)
- [Guam](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/guam/)
- [vampires](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/vampires/)
- [vampire romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/vampire-romance/)
- [supernatural romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/supernatural-romance/)
- [neo-Victorian](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/neo-victorian/)
- [Dracula](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/dracula/)
- [pastiche](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/pastiche/)
- [modernity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/modernity/)
- [Karen Essex](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/karen-essex/)
- [Dracula in Love](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/dracula-in-love/)
- [online feminism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/online-feminism/)
- [pornography](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/pornography/)
- [Sherilee Gray](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sherilee-gray/)
- [popular historical fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/popular-historical-fiction/)
- [Marina Fiorato](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/marina-fiorato/)
- ['Italy' as cultural construct](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/italy-as-cultural-construct/)
- [Anne Fortier](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/anne-fortier/)
- [Chinese interenet literature](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/chinese-interenet-literature/)
- [BDSM romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/bdsm-romance/)
- [Russia](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/russia/)
- [Alisa Klever](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/alisa-klever/)
- [literary adaptation](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/literary-adaptation/)
- [Tatiana Vedenska](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/tatiana-vedenska/)
- [metafiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/metafiction/)
- [literary influence](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/literary-influence/)
- [literary references](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/literary-references/)
- [Russian romance novels](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/russian-romance-novels/)
- [Galina Kulikova](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/galina-kulikova/)
- [Natal’ia Mironova](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/natalia-mironova/)
- [wuxia](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/wuxia/)
- [immigrant](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/immigrant/)
- [globalization](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/globalization/)
- [transcultural](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/transcultural/)
- [Turkey](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/turkey/)
- [family](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/family/)
- [individualism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/individualism/)
- [collectivism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/collectivism/)
- [reader response](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/reader-response/)
- [Asianness](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/asianness/)
- [East Asian American Fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/east-asian-american-fiction/)
- [contemporary romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/contemporary-romance/)
- [multiculturalism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/multiculturalism/)
- [Victoria Cross](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/victoria-cross/)
- [Annie Sophie Cory](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/annie-sophie-cory/)
- [compulsory monogamy](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/compulsory-monogamy/)
- [Urdu](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/urdu/)
- [digests](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/digests/)
- [kitchen](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/kitchen/)
- [tea](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/tea/)
- [Bakhtin](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/bakhtin/)
- [chronotope](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/chronotope/)
- [asexual romance fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/asexual-romance-fiction/)
- [corpus study](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/corpus-study/)
- [#ownvoices](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/ownvoices/)
- [relationship patterns](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/relationship-patterns/)
- [modernism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/modernism/)
- [lowbrow](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/lowbrow/)
- [nationality](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/nationality/)
- [exoticism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/exoticism/)
- [Italy](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/italy/)
- [Beauty and the Beast](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/beauty-and-the-beast/)
- [beastly lover](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/beastly-lover/)
- [Berta Ruck](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/berta-ruck/)
- [social attitudes](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/social-attitudes/)
- [Liz Fielding](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/liz-fielding/)
- [author](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/author/)
- [The Sheik (film)](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/the-sheik-film/)
- [poetry and popular romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/poetry-and-popular-romance/)
- [postcolonial](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/postcolonial/)
- [trans studies](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/trans-studies/)
- [war on terror](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/war-on-terror/)
- [teaching romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/teaching-romance/)
- [Swedish romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/swedish-romance/)
- [Simona Ahrnstedt](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/simona-ahrnstedt/)
- [critical analysis](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/critical-analysis/)
- [myth](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/myth/)
- [animal bridegroom](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/animal-bridegroom/)
- [pastoral](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/pastoral/)
- [Arcadia](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/arcadia/)
- [Spenser](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/spenser/)
- [Iranian romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/iranian-romance/)
- [Westoxification](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/westoxification/)
- [Quebec](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/quebec/)
- [Police-Journal](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/police-journal/)
- [gender equality](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/gender-equality/)
- [Swedish exceptionalism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/swedish-exceptionalism/)
- [Mary Balogh](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/mary-balogh/)
- [Britain](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/britain/)
- [mods](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/mods/)
- [conventionality](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/conventionality/)
- [Black romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/black-romance/)
- [Vivian Stephens](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/vivian-stephens/)
- [Dell](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/dell/)
- [Harlequin](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/harlequin/)
- [Sandra Kitt](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sandra-kitt/)
- [BWWM](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/bwwm/)
- [interracial romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/interracial-romance/)
- [branding](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/branding/)
- [cultural community wealth](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/cultural-community-wealth/)
- [Brenda Jackson](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/brenda-jackson/)
- [Indigo](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/indigo/)
- [Alyssa Cole](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/alyssa-cole/)
- [Rebekah Weatherspoon](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/rebekah-weatherspoon/)
- [Black masculinity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/black-masculinity/)
- [Black feminism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/black-feminism/)
- [Gwendolyn Pough](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/gwendolyn-pough/)
- [Gwyneth Bolton](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/gwyneth-bolton/)
- [publishing](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/publishing/)
- [Forbidden](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/forbidden/)
- [Night Song](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/night-song/)
- [Edge of Midnight](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/edge-of-midnight/)
- [An Unconditional Freedom](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/an-unconditional-freedom/)
- [A Duke by Default](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/a-duke-by-default/)
- [Harbour](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/harbour/)
- [Treasure](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/treasure/)
- [Rochelle Alers](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/rochelle-alers/)
- [Margo Hendricks](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/margo-hendricks/)
- [Elysabeth Grace](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/elysabeth-grace/)
- [Octavia Butler](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/octavia-butler/)
- [Francis Ray](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/francis-ray/)
- [bibliography](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/bibliography/)
- [sociology](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sociology/)
- [qualitative methods](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/qualitative-methods/)
- [syphilis](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/syphilis/)
- [modern romance novel](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/modern-romance-novel/)
- [E. M. Forster](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/e-m-forster/)
- [historical survey of the romance genre](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/historical-survey-of-the-romance-genre/)
- [survey of academic approaches](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/survey-of-academic-approaches/)
- [Courtney Milan](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/courtney-milan/)
- [racism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/racism/)
- [reader expectations](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/reader-expectations/)
- [sociology of literature](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sociology-of-literature/)
- [case study](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/case-study/)
- [popular romance canon](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/popular-romance-canon/)
- [affordances](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/affordances/)
- [communication privacy management (CPM)](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/communication-privacy-management-cpm/)
- [conflict](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/conflict/)
- [motivation](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/motivation/)
- [permanence](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/permanence/)
- [risk](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/risk/)
- [sexting](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sexting/)
- [trust](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/trust/)
- [dick pic](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/dick-pic/)
- [queer theory](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/queer-theory/)
- [reparative reading](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/reparative-reading/)
- [infidelity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/infidelity/)
- [consensually non-monogamous relationships](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/consensually-non-monogamous-relationships/)
- [consent](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/consent/)
- [intersectionality](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/intersectionality/)
- [cultural imperialism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/cultural-imperialism/)
- [shelving practices](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/shelving-practices/)
- [librarian practices](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/librarian-practices/)
- [ethnography](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/ethnography/)
- [Bakhtinian Analysis](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/bakhtinian-analysis/)
- [reality TV](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/reality-tv/)
- [reality television](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/reality-television/)
- [reality romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/reality-romance/)
- [The Bachelor](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/the-bachelor/)
- [The Bachelorette](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/the-bachelorette/)
- [scandal](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/scandal/)
- [heroines](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/heroines/)
- [selfhood](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/selfhood/)
- [internet](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/internet/)
- [transindividualism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/transindividualism/)
- [Kris Ripper](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/kris-ripper/)
- [Mills & Boon](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/mills-boon/)
- [LGBTQ](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/lgbtq/)
- [homonormativity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/homonormativity/)
- [betrothal](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/betrothal/)
- [proposal](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/proposal/)
- [Morning Glory Milking Farm](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/morning-glory-milking-farm/)
- [monster romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/monster-romance/)
- [rom-com](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/rom-com/)
- [Season of Crimson Blossoms](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/season-of-crimson-blossoms/)
- [soyayya novels](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/soyayya-novels/)
- [literary romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/literary-romance/)
- [obstruction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/obstruction/)
- [Hausa literature](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/hausa-literature/)
- [alpha hero](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/alpha-hero/)
- [Nigeria](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/nigeria/)
- [South Africa](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/south-africa/)
- [toxic masculinity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/toxic-masculinity/)
- [The Ankara Romance Series](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/the-ankara-romance-series/)
- [heroes](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/heroes/)
- [vasectomy](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/vasectomy/)
- [procreative realm](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/procreative-realm/)
- [reproductive health](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/reproductive-health/)
- [Danielle Steel](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/danielle-steel/)
- [David Guterson](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/david-guterson/)
- [Japanese Americans](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/japanese-americans/)
- [liberalism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/liberalism/)
- [city branding](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/city-branding/)
- [Wellington](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/wellington/)
- [Aotearoa New Zealand](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/aotearoa-new-zealand/)
- [national identity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/national-identity/)
- [rape myths](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/rape-myths/)
- [Sarah J. Maas](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sarah-j-maas/)
- [sexual violence](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sexual-violence/)
- [consent culture](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/consent-culture/)
- [new adult](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/new-adult/)
- [folklore](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/folklore/)
- [trauma](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/trauma/)
- [recovery](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/recovery/)
- [m/m romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/m-m-romance/)
- [KJ Charles](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/kj-charles/)
- [paranormal romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/paranormal-romance/)
- [Black historical romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/black-historical-romance/)
- [the erotic](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/the-erotic/)
- [unplanned pregnancy](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/unplanned-pregnancy/)
- [contraception](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/contraception/)
- [abortion](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/abortion/)
- [pregnancy narrative](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/pregnancy-narrative/)
- [yuri](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/yuri/)
- [romantic friendship](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/romantic-friendship/)
- [reception history](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/reception-history/)
- [Backman](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/backman/)
- [Swedish fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/swedish-fiction/)
- [psychical impotence](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/psychical-impotence/)
- [fanfiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/fanfiction/)
- [feminist cross-reading](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/feminist-cross-reading/)
- [Nancy Drew](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/nancy-drew/)
- [erotic](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/erotic/)
- [smut](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/smut/)
- [compulsory heterosexuality](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/compulsory-heterosexuality/)
- [queer desire](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/queer-desire/)
- [ghostwriters](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/ghostwriters/)
- [packagers](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/packagers/)
- [Sweet Valley](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sweet-valley/)
- [authors](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/authors/)
- [editors](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/editors/)
- [girl power](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/girl-power/)
- [girls' series fiction](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/girls-series-fiction/)
- [1980s popular culture](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/1980s-popular-culture/)
- [1990s popular culture](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/1990s-popular-culture/)
- [Indian adolescent Netflix series](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/indian-adolescent-netflix-series/)
- [narrative devices](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/narrative-devices/)
- [identity and subjectivity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/identity-and-subjectivity/)
- [Bollywood](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/bollywood/)
- [Never Have I Ever](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/never-have-i-ever/)
- [Mismatched](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/mismatched/)
- [Black girls](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/black-girls/)
- [Black Feminist Thought](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/black-feminist-thought/)
- [Black Radical Imagination](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/black-radical-imagination/)
- [girlhood](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/girlhood/)
- [Blackness](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/blackness/)
- [love triangles](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/love-triangles/)
- [trauma romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/trauma-romance/)
- [post-trauma romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/post-trauma-romance/)
- [transitional post-trauma romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/transitional-post-trauma-romance/)
- [trauma in romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/trauma-in-romance/)
- [trauma recovery in romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/trauma-recovery-in-romance/)
- [post-trauma effects in romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/post-trauma-effects-in-romance/)
- [polyamory](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/polyamory/)
- [relationship diversity](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/relationship-diversity/)
- [SOPO VEE OPP](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sopo-vee-opp/)
- [Sister Wives](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sister-wives/)
- [Marian Keyes](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/marian-keyes/)
- [alcoholism](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/alcoholism/)
- [Alcoholics Anonymous](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/alcoholics-anonymous/)
- [twelve-step programs](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/twelve-step-programs/)
- [American Civil War](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/american-civil-war/)
- [class structures](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/class-structures/)
- [Gothic romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/gothic-romance/)
- [dark romance](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/dark-romance/)
- [Amelia Wilde](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/amelia-wilde/)
- [Sam Mariano](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/sam-mariano/)
- [fairy tales](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/fairy-tales/)
- [Thai BL](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/thai-bl/)
- [cuteness](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/cuteness/)
- [fujoshi](https://www.jprstudies.org/tag/fujoshi/)