There is a short section specifically about teaching romance:
in 2019, I offered a third-year elective course titled Global Chick-Lit or Trans-Global Literature? Re-reading Contemporary Women’s Fiction (hereafter, ‘Chick-lit elective’). After the first introductory class where we got to know each other, I asked the students to go and read any Mills and Boon novel and write a review of it for the next class. Most students have read romance novels at one point or another in their life, but not encountered them in an academic context. Writing a review of one forces them to engage with the text differently.
Once they began to read out their reviews in class, they started to notice that all romance novels are written according to a particular formula. This prompted me to ask, ‘If romance novels are formulaic, why do they continue to be successful?’. This question opens up the discussion, not only about the texts but also the role of the writers, the readers and the publishers. After establishing the features of a romance novel, I asked the students to read two or three African romance novels, including Nollybooks, Sapphire Press and Ankara Press. In their reading, I asked them to identify the differences and similarities between Western romances and the African novels. In most cases, my students have encountered the Western romance novel, but not the African romance novels. By the end, the students have begun to understand that romance fiction cannot simply be dismissed, as it is far more complicated than it seems, and there are nuanced ways of understanding what makes this genre highly successful. (207-208)
There is a short section specifically about teaching romance: