This paper examines the connection between the dark romance literary sub-genre and feminism. Dark romance has found a dedicated fanbase through online platforms like TikTok but has been criticized for perpetuating rape culture and toxic masculinity. The romance genre offers romantic and sexual fantasies for the primarily female reader audience. Dark romance has its own unique fantasies, based in darker, taboo subject matter.
By analyzing four texts: Corrupt by Penelope Douglas, The Darkest Temptation by Danielle Lori, Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton, and the film adaptation of Jane Eyre (2011), reviews, psychological and anthropological research, this study demonstrates that the dark romance sub-genre is not anti-feminist. It argues that interest in dark romance is not inherently anti-feminist, despite the dark themes because it provides a safe outlet for fantasies that are experienced by real women.
---
The texts in this essay each represent a separate category of dark romance to attain a broader understanding of the subgenre. Haunting Adeline (2021) by H.D. Carlton is a stalker romance, Corrupt (2021) by Penelope Douglas is a bully romance, The Darkest Temptation (2020) by Danielle Lori is a mafia romance, and Jane Eyre (2011), based on the 1847 novel by Charlotte Brontë, is Gothic, but in the context of dark romance can also be defined as an age gap romance. (7)
Here's the abstract:
---