This dissertation examines the use of liminality, present in English folklore, in queer paranormal historical popular romance novels by KJ Charles, Harper Fox, Freya Marske, Sebastian Nothwell, Arden Powell, Emily Tesh, and Lee Welch. Through thematical criticism, it argues and shows that, in line with political aims of the subgenre of queer popular romance, these authors use the subversive, queering potential liminality has on folklore, history, and the structure of popular romance to enstrange and challenge existing power structures, and chrononormative and heteronormative stereotypes in romance, including the happily ever after required by the genre.
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Since 2013, there has been a curious influx of queer paranormal historical popular romance novels that use old English folklore for their worldbuilding. Authors such as KJ Charles, Harper Fox, Freya Marske, Sebastian Nothwell, Arden Powell, Emily Tesh, and Lee Welch have populated their stories with fae, ghosts, selkies, magical portals, and other folkloric elements local to the British Isles. Folklore is of course a rich natural source for worldbuilding in paranormal fiction of any kind, be it high fantasy, urban fantasy, horror or romance. However, this wave of novels shows an in-depth use of folkloric material that goes above and beyond the run-of-the-mill magical systems, fantastical creatures and settings, and attempts to reach a more fundamental, structural meaning behind them. Specifically, what appears over and over in the use of folklore in these novels is the theme of in-betweenness and transition – in other words, liminality. Why exactly do authors of queer paranormal historical popular romance use this theme so often, both implicitly and explicitly? (15)
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One of the political goals of queer popular romance, be it contemporary or historical, is to (re)populate the past and present with queer characters. Of course, it must be said that different queer popular romance authors engage in this political aim to different degrees, but the strengthened presence of LGBTQIA+ characters in the popular romance genre and thus in popular fiction is the result of even the shallowest of these engagements. (20)
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the majority of queer historical popular romance novels, paranormal or not, keep the period attitude towards queer people true to the historical reality. Even though there are supernatural powers and magic present in the analysed novels, they are not used to completely erase oppression against queer people present in the given period. (38)
The importance of home in queer fiction is shown by the fact that the theme is in one way or another present in all analysed novels, even if the instances are not elaborated or do not focus on liminality per se. (93)
Here's the abstract:
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