Amidst the increasing popularity of the romance genre, as evidenced by notable growth on online platforms such as TikTok, this project interrogates the perceived value and function of contemporary romance fiction. Drawing on the existing field of romance scholarship, this paper synthesizes key arguments pertaining to romance’s content, readers, form, and market, respectively. Such analysis is grounded in a reading of Ana Huang’s 2021 novel Twisted Love. Furthermore, given the highly gendered nature of popular romance, lenses of feminist critique are used to unpack the cultural significance of these narratives, exploring both the dangers and the merits that they provide for women.
---
The varied approaches to critiquing the popular romance genre, I assert, are all necessary in conjunction with each other in order to understand the romance novel in its entirety: as a story of cultural significance, a fulfillment of readers’ desires, a piece of literary artwork, and a commodity for consumers. Therefore, by contextualizing the debate within an interdisciplinary conversation, this project hopes to illuminate the idea of literary value as it pertains to the multifaceted existence of romance fiction. Furthermore, as questions of taste often betray implicit cultural values, this study will strive to interpret what the current emphasis on romance novels has to say about this generation of readers. (3-4)
---
even though I have enjoyed a handful of romance novels, I find that I have implicit biases surrounding these novels, judging them more harshly than other reads. Is this due to my scholarship in Literature? to internalized misogyny? to elitist claims that mass media is kitsch and worthless? Maybe none of these, yet maybe all of them. Regardless, these biases both dictate what I do and do not pick up, and also how I choose to understand them. (8)
---
entire subgenres emerge from the hypermasculine man; the mafia romance, for example, centers on a morally ambiguous hero who is involved with (and indeed, usually leading) the mafia. His criminality, in this context, carries a desirable connotation of power, strength, and authority, which all confirm his masculinity. Romantasy narratives similarly capitalize on hyperbolic manly features, granting supernatural power to their heroes. Why, then, do these heroes continue to be so popular, even as socially prescribed roles seem to be moving past such regressive, binary assumptions? (17)
---
If the hero is the epitome of masculinity, then it would usually follow that the heroine would be representative of femininity. While this is true, to an extent, it follows in a more complex manner than the hero’s character formation. Given the objectification and reductive nature of female characters in other genres, often appearing as a supporting character to the male lead, the romance heroine has the unique ability to display a more complicated understanding of femininity. This often manifests in a certain “rebelliousness” (Radway) or “female feistiness” (Snitow) that grants the heroine individuality, as she pushes back against the confines of a shallow feminine caricature: sweet, domestic, and simple. Such defiance also contributes to the aforementioned tension between the couple, allowing the heroine to assert her own power within their dynamic. (20-21)
---
Just as the romance narrative as a whole can be seen as a vehicle through which ideas about gender, love, and relationships can be seen, so can the presence of sexuality be read a similar way; it is a mode through which the evolving relationship addresses and releases the building tension between hero and heroine.
Of course, the line between what is a necessary use of sexuality in order to further the emotional relationship and the gratuitous use of explicit material to provide the reader vicarious pleasure is under constant debate and must necessarily take place on a case-by-case basis. (27)
---
Known for predictable and repetitive vocabulary, simple syntax, elementary dialogue, and explicit descriptions, the romance genre has a hard time holding its own against criticism that, as a form of art, it is found lacking. (44)
---
while the contextualization of romance within the industry of popular fiction may defend it from attacks of being “subliterature,” this is not to say that romance novels are without any danger. Indeed, the common manifestations of key elements oftentimes highlight reductive, gender essentialist themes. By positioning the main hindrance to the fulfillment of love as inherent differences between the male and female genders, these narratives run the risk of promoting ideals for romance that are not only fantastical, but actively harmful. (56)
---
as the demographic for romances shifts younger and younger, the “prospective” reading can take on a more precarious edge. Looking forward to a moment that has not yet occurred, these same plots take on the risk of being read through a more instructional lens, modelling what successful romantic relationships look like. While the fantasies remain still the same, a younger group of readers may be more susceptible to ascribing value to those aspects which older readers would interpret as “reparative.” Thus, while defenders of the romance genre easily dismiss harmful characterizations and tropes as being part of the fantasy and not representative of reality, the number of young girls who are consuming this content as representative of love should incite deeper reflection on how romances function. (57)
Here's the abstract:
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---