Mind-Reading the Romance Novel: Effects of Single Perspective and Dual Perspective in Christina Lauren’s The Unhoneymooners and Julie Olivia’s The Fiction Between Us
This thesis examines how romance novels can create different reading experiences through distinct setups for mind-reading. I analyze one novel offering a single perspective to the events, Christina Lauren’s The Unhoneymooners (2019), and another with two perspectives, Julie Olivia’s The Fiction Between Us (2022). Both novels feature a couple who share an antagonistic past that is based on a misunderstanding.
To compare the effects created by the variety in perspectives in such plots, this thesis uses Liza Zunshine’s work on Theory of Mind in fiction. In addition to this, it looks at how Alan Palmer’s concept of doubly embedded narratives and knowledge of characters’ own mental events affect how the characters view their relationship. To make sense of the development of the romances, it looks at the structure and barriers of romance novels as explained by Pamela Regis as well as how Patrick Colm Hogan sees these plot patterns being tied to patterns in characters and how these can be altered to create a unique novel.
This thesis shows how the inclusion or omission of the love interest’s perspective creates different demands for readers’ mind-reading actions. In novels with one perspective, mind-reading acts as a way to create tension and is a necessary way to gain information about the hidden perspective, while in novels with two perspectives, it is used to show the characters’ uncertainty of each other’s feelings as well as to create feelings of satisfaction for the reader. Although the information the reader possesses varies between the novels, both present the women as the ones struggling with their feelings and careers and the men as the sources of either delayed or immediate confirmation for the women’s feelings.
Due to alternative perspectives becoming popular only during the recent years, there has not been much academic discussion on the inclusion of more than the female character’s perspective. This thesis looks at the changes in the expectations of romantic relationships and how these are reflected in the male love interest’s involvement in heterosexual romance novels, resulting in shifts in the perspectives of the novels.
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In this thesis I argue that romance novels with one point of view engage the reader in trying to ascertain the love interest’s feelings regarding the protagonist, while novels with two points of view do not offer this opportunity. In contrast, the latter gives the reader a unique opportunity of gaining information from both sides in a relationship, which is not possible in real life. These novels can also illustrate the extent of the characters’ understanding of the other’s feelings as the reader can hear the thoughts directly from the person thinking them. In novels with a single perspective, the reader can be informed about the specifics of the barrier without losing the element of suspense, whereas in novels with a dual perspective, the suspense that is taken away from revealing the other perspective can instead be created by withdrawing the details of the barrier for the romance or the characters’ pasts. The latter method makes the reader engage in trying to discover the barriers and whether the characters want to conquer them. (3)
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A moment when a character’s inner feelings are unveiled to others through outward emotions is called “embodied transparency”, referring to instances where protagonists are put in situations “in which their bodies spontaneously reveal their true feelings, sometimes against their wills” (Zunshine, “Embodied Transparency” 70). These provide the reader with an opportunity to directly access the character’s mind through their behavior as there is a difference in having a narrator tell about the character’s feelings and making the characters themselves show their true feelings (Zunshine, “Embodied Transparency” 70). The characters often do not register this in other characters; however, the reader is made aware of them (Zunshine, “Embodied Transparency” 72). (19)
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