Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance

Publisher
University of Pennsylvania Press
Location
Philadelphia
Publication year
1992
Comment

I decided not to list all the articles in this book separately. For all the authors I have added the authors' names as topic tags. One reason for this is that the authors of the essays are romance writers, describing their works (at least part of the time) and include descriptions of each author, so I felt this was a good way to ensure the essays come up in searches for essays about those romance authors.

Another reason is that, as Jayne Ann Krentz writes in the introduction

The contributors to this collection of essays did not set out to provide a set of closely reasoned arguments in defense of the romance novel. What the writers in this volume have tried to do is explain to those who do not understand the appeal of the books that this appeal is as complex as it is powerful.  (2)

the essays in this volume are, to some extent, locked in code. The problem was inevitable due to the inherent difficulty of explaining any type of fantasy experience to those who do not grasp it intuitively. Thoughtful readers of the essays will have to abandon some of the conventional critical assumptions in favor of other perspectives if they wish to comprehend much of what is said here about the nature of the appeal of the romance novel. (8)

In other words, they are (mostly) writing as romance authors, rather than as academics, whereas this bibliography is of academic responses to romance fiction. The book as a whole, though, is a response to academic responses to the romance, and is published by an academic press.

Details of a review by Emily Toth can be found elsewhere in the database.

Where authors other than Krentz have offered a detailed, direct response to academic approaches to the genre and include references/citations then I have listed them separately and highlighted them in the list of contents below.

Here's a list of the contents:

Introduction - Jayne Ann Krentz, 1-9

Setting the Stage: Facts and Figures - Cathie Linz, 11-14

Beneath the Surface: The Hidden Codes of Romance - Linda Barlow and Jayne Ann Krentz, 15-29

The Androgynous Reader: Point of View in the Romance - Laura Kinsale, 31-44

The Androgynous Writer: Another View of Point of View - Linda Barlow, 45-52

The Romance and the Empowerment of Women - Susan Elizabeth Phillips, 53-59

Sweet Subversions - Daphne Clair, 61-72

Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know: The Hero as Challenge - Doreen Owens Malek, 73-80

Mean, Moody, and Magnificent: The Hero in Romance Literature - Robyn Donald, 81-84

Legends of Seductive Elegance - Anne Stuart, 85-88

Love Conquers All: The Warrior Hero and the Affirmation of Love - Elizabeth Lowell, 89-97

Welcome to the Dark Side - Mary Jo Putney, 99-105

Trying to Tame the Romance: Critics and Correctness - Jayne Ann Krentz, 107-114

Loved I Not Honor More: The Virginal Heroine in Romance - Doreen Owens Malek, 115-120

Making a Choice: Virginity in the Romance - Brittany Young, 121-123

By Honor Bound: The Heroine as Hero - Penelope Williamson, 125-132

Women Do - Judith Arnold, 133-139

Moments of Power - Stella Cameron, 141-144

The Risk of Seduction and the Seduction of Risk - Sandra Brown, 145-150

Happily Ever After: The Ending as Beginning - Suzanne Simmons Guntrum, 151-154

Let Me Tell You About My Readers - Diana Palmer, 155-158

Judge Me by the Joy I Bring - Kathleen Gilles Seidel, 159-179