The major aim of this thesis is to explore how the defining characteristics of romance novels are translated into Polish. As romance is a genre of literature that is characterised by a highly specific qualities, constitutive for the genre, a proper rendering of its features, such as sexually explicit scenes, special dialogue effects, and cultural references, is of utmost importance for the plot and worldbuilding in the novel. The present thesis is concerned with a type of popular romance novel called category romances. Category romance novels are described as books published in a certain series, having a similar number of pages and distinctive cover features, whose plots are formulaic love stories. The analyses are conducted using the relevance-theoretic framework. The analysis focuses on five category romance novels published by five different Polish publishing houses: Serce w rozterce by Penny Jordan (Halrequin), Słodka Amy Jane by Anna Ebernhardt (Alma-Press), Miłosna magia by Diana Palmer (Aramis), Może już jutro by Sandra Brown (Silhuette Books) and Słoneczko by Jude Deveraux (Wydawnictwo Da Capo). All of the novels analysed were published in the 1990s, after the Harlequins entered the Polish market, and many publishers started selling mass-market romances similar in content to the Harlequins.
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