Who Is Afraid of Romance Novels?: Women Readers, Patriarchy and Popular Culture

From the preface:

The reading was viewed as an addiction that corrupted one’s mind and was a waste of time. This puzzled me as to how something, which was enjoyable, could also cause anxiety. This research stems from that bewilderment.
I spoke to women who came to the lending libraries, to borrow these books. These women came from all walks of life, of different age groups, of varying social and intellectual levels. Only a few openly acknowledged that these texts gave them immense pleasure. The others did not think much about these books, even though they read at least one per fortnight. [...]

I needed to legitimize the reading of these books if only to assuage my own ambivalence about them. Are these books really inferior? If yes, why? If not, from where stems the prevalent idea? [...]

My exploration also made me search for corresponding forms in India. At this juncture, I noticed a striking similarity between these paperback romances and popular Indian cinema (both the national and vernacular movies), especially that which deal with the formulaic treatment of romance. The difference is not only that these movies are targeted at both the genders, but also the fact that their consumption is considered to be anything but light-hearted entertainment minus the implied dangers of the women ’s fiction. This has given rise to a need to explore the pleasures of reading, the foundations of gender bias, and the informing ideology, which controls different areas of women’s world, including reading in a covert manner. (1-3)

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From Chapter 1, which is the Introduction:

In chapter Two, I have chosen to review, question, and make mention of the politics of women reading and women writing, in the past and the present. Women have always been commercially successful among their contemporaries but have been generally kept out of the canon. The present day romance publishing industry is a repeat of this history of women writers' and readers' status.
 

Since reading is a subjective activity the position and context of the reader as subject have to be grasped. Since this thesis is concerned with Indian women reading romances, it is necessary to define the socio-cultural context in which this reading is done. Chapter Three therefore situates the readers of romance in the society and culture where their gender is constructed. In Chapter Four, I have reviewed some of the dominant psychological theories related to all these issues, which enable us in content analysis of the books and movies too. The questions of what forms the psychical composition, where does the influence of the external world stop, are all crucial to the understanding of the reception of the texts. In addition, there is a need to understand the convert messages present within them. In addition, this chapter covers how fiction is enjoyed by the readers.
 

Chapter Five is content analysis of the texts to trace the various ways in which they provide pleasure. The narcissistic content of the texts, the fulfillment of the various sub-aims of the libido present within them, the alternate world present within them, etc., are all elucidated in this chapter. Chapter Six is an extension of the previous chapter, but it traces the negative elements which are raised and resolved within the texts thus providing pleasure. I have allotted the last chapter for the study of films mainly because the core of this study as the validation of the reading of popular fiction by women. In Chapter Seven I strive to prove the parallels between the two forms and how there is within these texts more than just a love story. The movies however have pro patriarchal denouement. (23-25)

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Textually, a minimal number of characters is essential to keep the focus on the protagonists and have simple subplots. On the other hand, isolation is preferred by the narcissistic self, which lacks the ability or the inclination to interact with the external world. The preference is to focus on what is immediately of interest to the self. The minimal interaction with the external world is part of the narcissistic self-interest, like a private act that is enacted in the process of reading too. (108)

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The dream of the all-powerful, ever-successful self is very crucial to any form of cultural product when it serves the purpose of being pleasurable. For instance, let us look at the career world as presented by these books. While in actuality, the work life of women is no less complicated or challenging than that of men, these books idealize the work world making them attractive and desirable. While the romances of the seventies preferably made the heroines subordinates under the heroes, the present day romances give the heroines autonomy of career and business. (109)

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What happens when an average, middle-class woman reads about the Western, predominantly White society represented in these texts? Compared to the orthodox society that she comes from, she will find that the world as represented here is more liberated, permissive and equalitarian. Here again, when I speak of the Indian society, I am talking of the norm and not the exceptions. Within the subcontinent there exist so many subcultures that might vary in their levels of liberation and permissiveness. What is in question is the average reader who represents the average Indian orthodox culture. (116)

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