In 1994, Pinnacle Books, an imprint of Kensington Publishing Corporation, launched a new line of romance novels that featured Black characters written by Black authors. The new line was called Arabesque, and it was the first of its kind in mainstream publishing dedicated to love stories that explored Black life and culture. The line influenced other publishers to follow suit in acquiring similar titles and authors, and because of the number of African American writers signed to major publishing houses in 1994, the year was deemed by the press as the birth of the African American romance novel. This study examines the significance of African American and Black romance through the perspectives of editors, writers, and readers. From an editorial and industry standpoint, it analyzes romance publishing of the 1980s and 1990s and the elements that potentially influenced Pinnacle Books to invest in an African American readership. The craft of writing Black romances is explored through the motivations and strategies of pioneering Black authors of the genre, and the politics of Black love in romance novels is examined to understand the guiding question of this project: Why do Black women read Black romance fiction?
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In my documentation of Black romance history, I consider why the genre was developed, the structure and content of Black romance novels, the motivations of Black romance writers, and the desires and literary fantasies of their Black readership. I separated my study into three chapters to effectively analyze the perspectives of editors, writers, and readers. The first chapter explores the birth of the African American romance novel in 1994 through the launch of Pinnacle Books’ Arabesque line, category romance novels written by Black authors with Black characters. In the second chapter, I focus on Black romance authors and their motivations for writing fiction for a predominantly African American readership. Lastly, in the third chapter, I explore the politics of Black love to understand the desires, fantasies, and expectations of a Black romance readership. My aim in this study is not to compare Black romance to its white counterpart, as I believe Black women’s history, sexual politics, and gender ideology complicate the idea of romance and love relationships for Black readers and writers. For this reason, Black romance does not fit into the traditional structure of white romance, and the constant comparison of Blackness to the norms of whiteness creates limitations in the exploration of Black culture. Instead, I explore Black love within the context of the Black imagination where Blackness is centered, and Black writers have the power to build entire worlds in exploration of Black life. (5)
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Arabesque was not the first instance of Black romance in mainstream publishing. Ten years prior, Dell Candlelight published a series of ethnic romances that did not find the same success as the Arabesque line. Why? (12)
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Ultimately, I think the limited impact of the ethnic romances of the 1980s was due to publishers’ worries about crossover appeal. The novels were merged into category romance lines that already had a dedicated market of readers, and there was no potential, or desire on the part of the publisher, to disrupt a proven and profitable market. (17)
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In 1998, Arabesque was sold to BET Books, an imprint of Black Entertainment Television (BET). Pinnacle Books, however, remained in service to the line by continuing to publish the novels while BET Books provided the promotion. The media corporation adapted several Arabesque novels into TV movies that aired on the BET network. (36)
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In this chapter, I examine the structure of Black romance novels through a study of the genre fiction writing guides published between 1999-2003 that centered African American popular fiction. My analysis is shaped by the following questions: How do Black romance novels fit into the traditional structure of romance as well as push against it? What are the motivations of the genre’s authors in their characterizations of Black men and women? Why are these stories important? In answering these questions, I argue that Black romance writers faced a challenge in crafting depictions of Black people and communities, as they were writing against the myth of a Black community monolith. This myth was not just from the purview of a white society but came from within the community itself. Black romances followed the guidelines of the romance fiction genre, meaning that no matter the cultural orientation, romances generally depicted middle-class American values. Consequently, some readers took issue with how Black life and culture was represented by Black writers of romance. (40)
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Black romance novels, at least Arabesque category romance novels, fit into the discourse of deference that DuCille defines as a, “a nationalistic, masculinist ideology of uplift that demands female deference in the cause of empowering the race by elevating its men.” In 1994, Arabesque novels were some of the first instances of Black joy and love in print during an era when Black trauma and struggle was marketed as the sole example of Black experience. Readers were guaranteed an emotionally satisfying ending and depictions of Black men that contrasted greatly with other media and literary images. (52)
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Black romance authors, in many of the writing guides I examined, describe any negative perspective about Black men, particularly by Black women, as male bashing and emphasized the uplift of Black men and manhood in genre fiction. While the statements by Gamble, Jenkins, and Forster reflect an effort to emphasize the positive characteristics and contributions of Black men, they fail to consider the intra-racial sexual politics of Black communities. Along with idealized fantasies of Black men in romance, criticism that focuses on the complexities and truths of Black love relationships and Black masculinities are important and should not be limited to Black literary fiction. (53)
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Respectability politics and ideas of morality were definitely key features in some romances, but many heroines, in contrast to the 1950s middle-class Black women who kept their sex lives private, were presented as sexually experienced. They were educated about birth control and participated freely in sexual exploration and pleasure within the realm of monogamous relationships. Black female desire and pleasurable sexuality, for the first time, was placed in the public sphere and celebrated through the production and consumption of Black romance novels. (72)
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As I continue to reflect on why Black women read romance, the idea of emotional connection to the story, the characters, and the social issues remains at the forefront of my study. (84)
Here's the abstract:
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