This thesis explores the phenomenon of the huge popularity of formula romantic fiction with women readers. In particular it aims to explore why, in face of movements towards increasing equality of the sexes, such a seemingly conservative form of the mass media is increasing its hold on its audience. It looks at popular romantic fiction in two aspects. Firstly, romantic novels are seen as part of the mass media. Since the essential of mass culture is defined as the dissemination of cultural products by an organised production organisation to an atomised mass audience, formula fiction is something of an ideal type. It is suggested that research into the mass media neglects the study of popular fiction as a part of the field. Secondly, the study of romantic fiction is seen as a useful key to the understanding of the ideology of women. Because the concerns of romantic fiction lie in those structures of society which particularly shape women's lives, it is felt that research into this subject can be an oblique and particularly effective way of exploring women's ideas about their situation.
The research explores the ideas and attitudes of publishers, authors, librarians and particularly the readers, together with analysis of the contents of the books. Various methods of investigation are used: open-ended questionnaires, interviews, especially in-depth interviews with forty readers, also private correspondence, publicity material and general meetings.
The research is revealing in demonstrating ambivalent attitudes about the popularity of romantic fiction. It also shows that, far from being gullible consumers of sentimental rubbish or the victims of patriarchal ideology, the women readers had very complex attitudes to their reading and this was intriguingly mirrored in the reality of their daily lives. The research presents empirical data from Britain to balance previous findings mostly drawn from North American studies. The research also challenges much previous research on the popularity of romantic fiction reading which draws on psychological and psychoanalytic theories and suggests that sociological explanations may have more immediate relevance.
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