Archive for: April, 2010

Vampire Romance: Dead or Undead?

Apr 08 2010 Published by under Vampires

Is it time to stick a fang in a once beloved subgenre?

“No more vampires!” is the headline of a recent interview at GalleyCat with Lit Agent Caryn Wiseman who specializes in children’s and middle grade for The Andrea Brown Literary Agency. She says:

Funny middle-grade, horror, dystopian, steampunk, multicultural fiction. No more vampires, werewolves or zombies. I’d like to see a middle-grade or YA novel that explores a fresh, new paranormal category or a new twist on a dystopian world.

I was preparing for a Vampire Romance roundtable at last week’s Popular Culture Association conference, and it occurred to me that there hasn’t been much buzz lately about vampire romance in Romanceland.

Is this the end of the fang?

I decided the experts would know, so I asked them. And here’s what they said:

Paranormal Romance author Michele Hauf, while agreeing that “straight vampire romances” are a little harder to find lately, notes that:

Urban Fantasy has nudged into the genre and now you find publishers stamping ‘paranormal romance’ on an urban fantasy that may or may not feature a significant romance in the story.   I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing.  It’s vamp romance evolving and influencing other ‘genres’ within the paranormal.

As for straight vampire romances that feature either hero or heroine as vampire (and the other could be mortal or another creature) I took a browse through my Ultimate VampList, specifically the Romance list, to see what titles jumped out at me as from an author who is more well known and has had success with a vampire romance series.  Popular authors and series include: Marta Acosta’s Casa Dracula novels, Amanda Ashley, Christine Feehan’s Dark Series, Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark, Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunters, Michelle Rowen’s Immortality Bites, Lynsay Sands’ Argeneau Vampires, Kerrelyn Sparks’s Love At Stake series.

From a writer’s point of view, I have to say that most editors are still hungry for vampires in romance, as long as it’s not same old/same old.  They are looking for a new twist, which may be why we’re seeing the vamp roms alter and morph into something bigger and more than just your simple boy bites girl story.

Michele was kind enough to share with me a graph she compiled of vampire romances published by year:

It would be really interesting to know how 2009 panned out in the end — was 2008 the beginning of a downward trend, or a blip? ParanormalRomance.org has a list with 56 titles for 2009, but I have no idea how it compares Michele Hauf’s list (do they count the same publishers? Do you count pubs like Ellora’s Cave? Should we count YA?).

Marta Acosta, author of the Casa Dracula series, concurs with Michele Hauf on the move to UF:

From what I’ve seen, there’s a strong move toward urban fantasy with multiple paranormal characters in conflict. I don’t know if readers burned out on vampire-only stories, or if writers wanted to move beyond the vampire-only stories. I do sometimes feel as if many writers are going overboard. You have books with every sort of paranormal creature thrown in the mix and sloppy worldbuilding.

But, I asked her, are there any newer successful vamp rom series? After making the point, using Charlaine Harris as an example, that series popularity is often a slow build, she name checks the following:

Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress series
Keri Arthur’s Riley Jenson Guardian series
Molly Harper’s comic Jane Jameson books

In terms of trends, Acosta notes that YA vampire books are big:

Vampire Academy books by Richelle Mead
Chicagoland Vampire books by Chloe Neill
Blue Bloods books by Melissa de La Cruz
Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine
Darkest Powers books by Kelley Armstrong
Vampire Kisses books by Eileen Schreiber

And we also now have the “half-vampire book. Generally there’s a protagonist who’s half vamp and half were, which give inherent conflict” she adds.

Margaret L. Carter, horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance novelist, is also the author of Different Blood: The Vampire as Alien (2004) (Amber Quill Press — also on Amazon).

Carter is in agreement that the mixing of genres in vampire fiction will continue as a major trend, but she adds that:

Contrary to the dominant themes of earlier vampire romance, the vampire who hates his or her “cursed” existence has become relatively rare; more often than not, contemporary vampires seem to be well adjusted to their condition.

On the topic of series, she notes that

Contemporary series seem to satisfy readers’ and publishers’ demand for “more of the same, but different” by either featuring a different couple in each book but with the same background and ongoing cast of characters or following the development of one couple’s relationship through several books.

Carter listed a few of the new titles that have caught her eye, including the above mentioned Molly Harper, Jeaniene Frost, and Lynsay Sands, and also Michele Bardsley’s Broken Heart series (the suburban, domestic milieu is interestingly different, and her background for the books featurescomplex world-building) and Trisha Telep’s two volumes of The Mammoth Books of Vampire Romance (1 and 2) (2009).

Speaking of Michele Bardsley, the nationally bestselling author of paranormal romance (In September 2010, the seventh book in the Broken Heart series, Cross Your Heart, will be out in bookstores, and she just sold two more stories in the series) really likes:

Katie MacAlister’s Dark Ones series
Dakota Cassidy’s Accidentals series
Kerrelyn Sparks Love at Stake series

She adds:

The Young Adult genre is experiencing the most market growth thanks to Twilight. Two of my favorite YA series are Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy books and Rachel Caine’s Morganville Vampires. With shows like True Blood, Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries … I think vampires and romance will be around for a long while.

Amanda, of LoveVampires.com, a popular website with dedicated to reviewing a range of urban fantasy, paranormal romances, horror novels, literary classics, and YA, says:

Certainly mainstream publishers are no longer publishing the types of vampire romances that I started out reading over 10 years ago. There seems to be a much greater divergence of paranormal types (shapeshifters, angels, dragons, fey, etc.) chosen to be the romantic leads and a heavier reliance on fantasy sub-plots in the story background to ratchet up the over-all story excitement level. Kresley Cole’s books would be a prime example of this and she gets the mix of romance and fantasy just right each time, making her IAD series books hugely readable and hugely popular. I think authors and publishers have seen the popularity of books like this and obviously want to produce more like them to satisfy the market.

Vicky London of VampireGenre.com, another popular website which reviews vampire novels from contemporary paranormal authors, agrees with the prevailing sentiment:

I do feel like the trend is very much moving towards fantasy and urban fantasy rather than traditional romance stories peopled by vampires. There are a few authors still continuing this type of writing such as Lynsay Sands and Amanda Ashley but I think they are quickly becoming the minority. The vampire books I’ve enjoyed reading in the past few years are as you say about a larger more complex world of supernatural creatures. Writers like Patricia Briggs, Kim Harrison and Charlaine Harris are excellent examples of the success of the trend.

Particia Altner, a former librarian, is the proprietor of Patricia’s Vampire Notes. She is the editor of Vampire Readings: An Annotated Bibliography (1998).

There are many excellent vampire romances being published. When browsing the shelves of the local B&N, it’s not unusual to get into a conversation with a customer or a bookseller about the paranormal romances in general, but inevitably the topic turns to “what’s a good vampire romance”. Maybe these conversations happen to me because it’s my focus, but, I do believe there is still a high interest.

I’ve been keeping track (as much as possible ) of new books coming out monthly that have a vampire theme, and many of them are romances or have strong romantic themes. Let’s face it: the allure of the dark, seductive kiss has been around for a long time. Hints of it can be found in Dracula. Even the powerful slayer Buffy had vampire lovers – Angel and Spike. That lucky girl!

In the newer world of paranormal romance the sexual situations are frequent and explicit. That’s the norm and has been for awhile. (LKH may have been one of the first to do this in print.)  In 1998, when I published Vampire Readings, several titles were vampire romances, but the love scenes were mostly smooches with the hero admiring the heroine’s beautiful but mostly clothed body and her shapely ankles. Not anymore! I’m wondering if the rise of e-publishers like Ellora’s Cave, Samhain, etc. have helped stretch the boundaries.

LA Banks, bestselling author of the Vampire Huntress and Crimson Moon series, has a few things to say about the popularity of the subgenre. Banks, recipient of the 2008 Essence Storyteller of the Year award, has written over 35 novels and contributed to 12 novellas, writing under various pseudonyms, in diverse genres including romance, women’s fiction, crime/suspense thrillers, and paranormal.

This really explains my use of metaphor and the use of the genre to make deep parallels to the things troubling me in society. I believe that all fiction is metaphor–and if you look at the work of some of the “greats” in history (not that I am, just using them as a reference point :-) )… they used their platform to speak out against things facing society by making people feel. Take Dickens, Shakespeare, the list is very reputable and long, where social activism came in the form of fiction sometimes hidden in the most obscure of genres.

Right now I believe the fascination with vampires has everything to do with our nation’s perpetual youth consciousness — plastic surgery, supplements, Viagra ( :-) ), face creams, wrinkle banishers, gyms, et al. Americans want to stay young and live forever. Growing old is not a sign of evolution or reality or even a badge of honor any longer… it is looked upon as a weakness or a disease, not the normal course of events. It’s very interesting. Right behind youth is money and fame–put them together and you have the perfect storm for vampire novels :)

When I asked specifically about the impact of Twilight, Shiloh Walker, best-selling author of fantasy and paranormal romance novels with Ellora’s Cave and Samhain, writes:

The vamp genre isn’t done… the fantastic thing about fiction is that it can be limitless. If the writer’s imagination is fertile, there’s no telling what she can do with a particular sub-genre.

Edward isn’t indicative of all vamp romance.  He’s just one particular type of hero, and he’s not necessarily indicative of that many ‘vamp’ heroes-he thinks he’s the monster, but we can shift that to contemporary.  In contemporary romance, he’d be the  ‘bad boy’-the one guy that  is ‘bad’ for the heroine.   We can shift him to historical and he’s the ‘bastard’ son who will never amount to anything.  But he’s certainly not indicative of all vamp romance.  That’s saying all vampire romance is the same, and that’s not true.  It would be like saying all literary fiction is the same, or all science fiction is the same.  Every writer brings their own unique voice to the story-there are dozens of writers who try their hand at vamp romance, which means you’ve got dozens of different twists of vampire romance.

Writers can take this tale and reshape it, retell it a hundred times, and it always comes out different-why?  Because every writer’s voice is different, every writer’s imagination is different.  It isn’t necessarily the tale that’s all that different.  It’s  the individual writer’s spin on that tale, how we see things, how we view things, how we interpret things.

My particular opinion is that Edward isn’t the end unless every writer decides to start writing all vamps to mimic him.

Nor do I think vampire romance is done.  Yes, the market is definitely seeing it’s fair share of them right now, but that is how trends work.  It’s riding a high now, and in a few years, it will level off, but there will still be those readers who want the vamps-I’ll probably be one of them.  I’ve been reading vamps sicen the 90s-then it was Linda Lael Miller and Maggie Shayne-way before Stephanie Meyer, Laurell K. Hamilton or JR Ward came onto the scene.

The trend will level.  That doesn’t mean it will disappear.  Vamp lovers will always be here, so there will likely always be a market.  If there’s a market, there will be a need for stories.  The trick is having a solid story-a solid world-not just jumping on the band wagon and having a ‘brotherhood’ or a ‘vampire hunter’ or what have you.  If writers are writing just because it’s ‘hot’ or just because ‘everybody else is doing it’… eh, then they’ll move on to the next trend.  Me?  I’m always going to have something a little weird going on, whether it’s vampire, shapeshifter, psychic… that’s just how my mind works. But I’m realistic.  I know in a few years, the trend will level.  And a few years after that?  It will swing back up to the top.  That’s how trends work.

So, no, it doesn’t look like the end of the bloodline for our fanged friends, although they are going to have to get used to bumping shoulders with a host of nonhuman beings and finding themselves in a wide variety of perhaps unfamiliar genres.

PS. I have totally lost by mojo, after 10 posts, for talking about PCA, but if any readers want to know more about the vampire romance panel I was on with Heide Crawford of the Dept of Germanic Languages at Kansas University, chaired by Amanda Hobson of Ohio University, just ask in the comments, and I will be happy to share.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts with me via email!

14 responses so far

Is the Happily Ever After A Romance Imperative?

Apr 07 2010 Published by under Pop Culture Association 2010

Following are notes from a paper given by Phil Mathews at the Popular Culture Association Annual Meeting in St. Louis. I was not able to attend this final romance area panel, but Phil kindly provided me with a copy of his paper from which to derive a summary. I cannot promise that I’ve got everything right.

Phil Mathews is a Lecturer in Screenwriting at Bournemouth University in Dorset, England. He has degrees in fine arts and screenwriting, and his research interests are in 70s – 00s cinema, screenwriting theory, and the romance genre. He is a practicing screenwriter with credits for both film and television.

Is the Happily Ever After a Romance Imperative?

This paper will attempt to draw direct links between romance literature and film where presently there exists often conflicting definitions of genre and form. The hope is to open investigation into the form and engender further debate.

I’d like to argue that the Romance genre is stigmatised undeservedly because of the imperative for a happy ending. It is easy for critics to cast aspersions over a genre if one of the primary plot points, the ending, and with it an emotional conceit to instill or illicit joy or familiarity in its audience, is sacrosanct. It could be argued that emotional investment in a narrative is tempered when the ending is a foregone conclusion either way, positive or negative. Does a genre need to prescribe specific endings to a potentially infinite amount of stories? What does a genre hope to gain by being incalcitrant? With genres constantly in flux and their patterns, conventions and tropes sensitive to their own cultural and contemporary milieu, is it not conceivable that romances can span the depth and breadth of our capacity to experience and express notions of love in whatever form and to whatever end?

Phil compares Pam Regis’s 8 essential components of a romance novel to a leading screenwriting theorist Phil Parker’s requirements for a love story in film, noting that Parker does not require an HEA. According to Parker, even a love story which ends with the characters apart is a romance, so long as as long as the transformative value of love is upheld.

Mathews recognizes that the HEA need not be solemnized by a wedding, but he notes that two ideas are central to the HEA: (1) true love is forever or at least for the rest of the couple’s lives, and (2) there is some form of validation of the couple’s commitment to each other.

Mathews is aware that critics dismiss romance on the basis of this narrative requirement of an HEA, he feels that more is going on here than a refusal among critics to recognize that, as Regis put it, “narratives end.” He thinks it is worthwhile to ask both why critics perceive the HEA as stigmatizing, and also to ask why the HEA is perceived by readers as necessary to the genre.

Phil proceeds to discuss several films which celebrate the positive power of love and end with the promise of love, but which do not stipulate “how that commitment must or might manifest itself. ”

These include:
Good dick (2008)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2003)
Juno (2007)
Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
Paper Heart (2009)
Monsters Ball (2001)

He then discusses The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009), Titanic (1997), and Ghost (1990) to suggest that “even the finality of Death need not be a barrier to the happily ever after.” He also mentions the film Love Me If You Dare (2003), in which the lovers consummate their relationship by kissing in the foundations of an office block as they are covered in wet cement. “They are literally petrified in a romantic embrace for all eternity, happily ever after.” Mathews writes.

Mathews suggests that the “cinematic resistance to betrothal” may have something to do with the greater time constraints presented by the medium, in which running times are between 90-200 minutes. He notes that some films address this issue by focusing tightly on the lead up to the betrothal and wedding, such as Meet the Parents (2000) and My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002).

Mathews discusses several other kinds of love story, including star-crossed lovers (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2009), Casablanca (1942)), tragic love stories (The Separation (1994), 5×2 (2004), the Break Up (2006) and Revolutionary Road (2008)), and love stories as subplots (The Piano Teacher (2001), Leaving Las Vegas (1995), Monster (2003), Carlito’s Way (1993),The Prestige (2006)).

He concludes by asking:

Would a more inclusive view of romance conventions, able to embrace the love plot, tragic or otherwise, not serve to consolidate the genre? Is the imperative for the happily ever after the stumbling block to the potential acknowledgment of the romance genre as the most ubiquitous or universal narrative form?

23 responses so far

Will You Read or Review the new “Reality Based Romances” from HCI?

Apr 06 2010 Published by under Genre musings

I am sure I am the last to know, but here are a few thoughts on this new sub genre of romance (or new subgenre of self-help — I’m not sure if these count as fiction or nonfiction. Hat tip, Milena.)

From Publisher’s Weekly:

Beginning this fall, HCI Communications is introducing what it believes is a new subgenre in romance publishing—reality-based, or RB Romance™. A new imprint, Vows, will debut with three titles written by established romance authors and will draw on real-life couples for inspiration. Editorial director Michelle Matrisciani said HCI has been collecting stories from a number of different places, including newspaper announcements and contests, and matching couples with authors who will use the arc of their courtship as the basis for what Matrisciani called “true life fiction.”

HCI publishes self-help books, like the Chicken Soup books. From the UK’s Independent:

“We really wanted to get into the romance category, but it’s an area we had no experience in, and this was our idea of a way of translating what we do well into a new area,” says Michele Matrisciani, the firm’s editorial director. “We want to provide inspiration to readers of romantic novels who need to know real love can exist outside romantic novels.”

The authors are Julie Leto, Alison Kent, and Judith Arnold. Three books will be out this fall with six planned for 2011. They will be trade paperbacks. The first books are $13.95.

More from today’s Independent story:

HCI does not require the stable of bestselling authors it has recruited to write “faction” to stick exactly to the script of real-life relationships. Dialogue can be embellished, for dramatic effect, and some names changed. But though a certain level of artistic licence is permitted, the bare bones of the story cannot be altered.

“There are different levels of sensuality,” says HCI’s Rupprecht. “At one end of the scale, you have Amish titles, which are very staid; at the other, there’s Romantica, which are very exotic and X-rated. Ours will fall right in the middle: we’ll have sensual elements, but the emphasis is on the relationship. They’ll stay tasteful and won’t venture into anything hardcore or voyeuristic.”

The names will be real life, but the covers will not picture the actual couple.

My first thought is “Why”?

The real life couple gets paid, and gets a nifty memento of a period in their lives, so in that sense, the motives are the same as anyone on reality TV. (and if you want them to tell your story, go to www.vowsbooks.com and enter)

The publishers are motivated by money: they see a way to break in to a profitable market (although I suspect they will be creating a new market rather than breaking in to an existing one). “Based on the True Story” sells loads of movie tickets. Perhaps the same will be true in this case.

It will be interesting to see whose stories they choose. Might we see more diversity in class, race, etc. than we do right now in romance? The first book is about a couple who have to work through the man’s “mild form of Tourette’s syndrome”, so maybe we will be seeing more diversity by looking to real life stories.

Why are the authors doing it? The authors are quoted as saying this is a way to make contemporary romance “more timely”, which doesn’t make immediate sense, since “contemporary” means “timely” to me, but what do I know? They also want to “try something new”. And, of course, it promises to be lucrative if the HCI self-help titles are anything to go by (50,000 copy print run for the first Vows book. Is that high for romance titles?)

What about for the readers?

Matrisciani said she hopes that by using real-life stories as the basis for a novel, readers will see that “romance really exists. It doesn’t have to be fiction.”

Don’t we romance readers know this already? Isn’t that in part what draws us to the genre?

I can only speak for myself. Personally, I am not interested. I don’t watch reality TV, and I don’t think I’ll be interested in reality romance. I read fiction. I read novels, not self-help manuals. Many people believe romance writers are hacks writing for the paycheck or to fulfill the ultimate fangirl fantasy of becoming what they love, that they are not artists, they have no literary skill, including imagination, and that they just write the same books over and over and over and over.

I just returned from a conference where every attendee working on popular romance studies rejected those assumptions, and shared a commitment to seeing the genre of romance taken more seriously as literature.

Somehow, I don’t think this venture will contribute to that effort.

I have a hard time thinking of this as fiction at all … because it isn’t. The word “faction” has been suggested, and I guess that’s as good as any, although perhaps misleading in some ways. Is reality TV factual?

Then again, there are lots of other projects for boosters of romance, including acknowledging and accepting the fact that loads of people do consume romance merely for pleasure, just for an easy, mindless, hot escape, who don’t care about a great aesthetic experience. Not having to justify on literary or any other socially (read: androcentrically) acceptable grounds the pleasures that women take in their entertainment is an important project too.

Maybe all those reality TV fans will gravitate to these books. Then, through reading them, they’ll realize there is an entire literary genre to explore. Or maybe they’ll be great reads, even for skeptics like me. I really hope so. But this skeptic will be waiting for all of you to read and review them first.

Here’s the publisher’s synopsis of the first book out of the gate, Hard To Hold:

New York lobbyist Michael Davoli feels like he’s been sucker punched when he meets Anne Miller at a concert. When fate leads him to move into same Albany apartment building where Anne lives, Michael falls hard. After all, Anne’s hot, his dog likes her, and she’s catnip to the senses after she picks a lock faster than Sydney Bristow can disarm a nuke. Always fiercely independent, Anne’s crackerjack reporting skills and keen intellect are no match for the chemical reaction she has to this man with electric blue eyes. But while Mike effortlessly holds her with his gaze, he withholds the embrace she longs for. Why is he so distant? Has Anne misread his signals?

What do you think? Excited? Worried? Wait and see?

35 responses so far

PCA Romance Panel 10: The Construction of Gender: (Killer) Heroes and Heroines

Apr 04 2010 Published by under Pop Culture Association 2010

Following are some of my fallible, incomplete, impressionistic notes from a Romance Area panel session at the PCA conference in St. Louis. These are notes on works in progress, and do not purport to be complete records of the papers presented.  Please follow up with individual presenters for full copies of their papers or to have specific questions about their work addressed.

Romance X: The Construction of Gender: (Killer) Heroes and Heroines
Session Chair: Darcy Martin, East Tennessee State University

“From Virgins to Rogues: Iris Johansen’s Ten-year Love Affair with Loveswept‖ Darcy Martin, East Tennessee State University

Iris Johansen: 24 novels for Loveswept (3rd most)

“Stories of true romance and touching emotion”

Significant number of Loveswept authors made it big. Tami Hoag, Janet Evanovich, etc.

How did Loveswept compete in a crowded market? Strategy was to have authors publish under their real names. Personalize the authors, highlight the authors with bios etc.. Have authors write notes to readers. Pictures of authors in the books.

Johansen’s first book in 1983. Published 7 books in 1984 alone.

Reissues of her early work (common now of 1980s) have puzzled some fans, because she writes differently now — suspense.

Lots of very young very virginal heroines.

Question: Why is virginity so beloved by romanced readers?

Cites Jayne Ann Krentz and others here:

Virginity can only be given once, to one’s great love. Virginity adds drama and power to narrative. Changes heroine. But changes hero too.

Krentz: Heroic quality to women’s virginity throughout history of narrative

Cites author of Full Frontal Feminism on virginity.

Rogue hero [got a call and tuned out here. Sorry!] –she describes what he is like

Close textual analysis of a few IJ texts.

IJ says plot doesn’t come first, although IJ says she wish it did. For her, characters come first.

She said she was given a lot of creative license in Loveswept.

“Readers’ Perceptions of Realism, Race, and Gender in Brockmann’s Contemporary Romance Novels‖ Jim Haefner, University of St. Francis; Margaret Haefner, North Park University

Surveyed 60 undergraduate  students via online survey at surveymonkey.com, as well as focus groups

Asked about whether the respondents, who had read the books, found challenges to -isms in the heroines, heroes, their careers, and their romantic relationships

Over the Edge (sexism), Gone Too Far (racism), and Force of Nature (heterosexism and sexism)

The researchers looked for difference among students in different racial groups, between those who had women’s studies experience and those who did not, and differences between lesbian or bisexual versus heterosexual readers, but  conclude that thee were not that significant.

Readers also confirmed that Brockmann challenges sexism, racism, and heterosexism in many ways in the text.

Responses to Sam and Alyssa’s interracial relationship were all over the map, with some feeling it was totally unrealistic and others totally unremarkable. differences here as in other cases did not map onto racial identities of the readers.

“Wicked Symmetry: The Dangerous Compulsion of Attraction in Twilight and Ziska”‖ Jacob Lusk, University of North Florida; Marnie Jones, University of North Florida

[Here is a blog review of Marie Corelli's Ziska: The Problem of a Wicked Soul, published in 1897. The Kindle edition is FREE.]

Both texts – teleological worlds.

Love and sex as identity destroyers

Bella destroys her identity for her lover, shapes herself in Edward’s likeness

Each woman exerts authority that obliterates identity, in Bella’s case her own.

Bella destroys herself, Ziska destroys Gervase

Both use sex to destroy

Bella becomes perfect when she becomes a vampire. Everything is perfect. Even the sex is better.

Neither presents a world where women and men in real human world can achieve equality

In the human realm, power was a zero sum game.

Corelli was more progressive, calling into question the idea that passion qualifies as love

Both books are sex stories, not love stories

2 responses so far

PCA Romance Panel 9: So Classy!: High/Low/Middle Class/Culture

Apr 04 2010 Published by under Pop Culture Association 2010

Following are some of my fallible, incomplete, impressionistic notes from a Romance Area panel session at the PCA conference in St. Louis. These are notes on works in progress,and do not purport to be complete records of the papers presented.  Please follow up with individual presenters for full copies of their papers or to have specific questions about their work addressed.

Romance IX: So Classy!: High/Low/Middle Class/Culture
Session Chair: Sarah S. G. Frantz, Fayetteville State University

“Something New: Resisting the Coupling Convention in Contemporary Black Romantic Film”‖ Consuela Francis, College of Charleston

She began this project in part because she had been thinking about ways to critique slash fiction without demeaning women’s reading and writing processes.

Discussion of African American literary critical history, which often links literary value with racial uplift

Critics’ idea is that these books are interventions in oppressive racial ideologies: not just love stories

Such readings are not unconvincing, as much as unsatisfying, incomplete.

Lit critic Collins refers to “The uncommon pleasure [for black women]  of knowing it is ‘all about you’” (Collins)

But contemporary AA romance and erotica provides such a space, in which it is not all that uncommon at all, in which it is all about black women’s pleasure, beauty and desire.

Long quote from Audre Lorde’s The Uses of the Erotic on what the erotic is.

Lorde’s definition refers to sexual pleasure but also to desire and pleasure of any sort that moves us closer to our truer selves and away from negation, closer to a true assessment of our lives

Need to pay more attention to the pleasure black women derive from reading romance

Black women are taught to desire anything but what they might desire on their own.

But in black romance, this is not true. It is a literary space built on narrative insufficiency of black respectability as measure of black female desire.

Something New, Brown Sugar are the two films she discusses in detail.

Today we are in a new ideological and cultural space, with our 20th and 21st century AA romance novels.

For example, maybe some black women feel good by loving white men (as in the film). Black women do this in real life. They write it. And they enjoy reading it. Let’s not lose this basic element of analysis – the pleasure of this.

Not denying there is pleasure in reading Toni Morrison novels, which she reads and enjoys, but this it is a different literary tradition and different pleasure. It doesn’t come from the uplift of the race but something else.

These are built on assumption of black freedom. It says, black women  are able to love because they are already free.

“She quoted Shakespeare!: The inclusion of highbrow literature in popular romance novels”‖
Tamara Whyte, University of Alabama

Hands out a list of relevant quotations from Victoria Alexander’s Secrets of a Proper Lady. Handout also references a list of books published in 2009 which reference  highbrow literature.

Includes Liz Carlyle, Jane Feather, Suzanne Enoch, Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, Stephanie Laurens, Olivia Drake, Melody Thomas, Jillian Hunter

She has counted 400 references to Shakespeare alone in romance novels

Some say this is just an attempt to elevate a popular genre.

She argues it demonstrates the amount of literary education the author has, and what she can presume of her audience.

It suggests a postmodern blurring of high and low culture forms.

Cites an article that suggests a preponderance of Shakespeare references in Regencies in 1980, in order to invoke Shakespeare’s cultural capital, and to set out Regency as a higher culture version of romance.

TW rejects this as a good explanation. Thinks it has more to do with acknowledging intelligence of audience.

Notes Eloisa James’s website invites readers to find literary allusions in her work, which are abundant. Clearly James thinks her readers will not only get them, but appreciate them.

Hawkins cited: it is academic tradition not literary tradition which erects boundaries between high and low.

Enriches reading experiences of both Shakespeare and romance novels.

“Neither True Nor Fair: An Exploration of Female Heroism in Popular Romance”‖
Angela Toscano, University of Utah

“Neither True nor Fair”, John Donne

Eventually she would like to ask whether we can have a antiheroine, but first need to figure out what a heroine is.

What is heroine’s narrative function within literature as whole? They lack definition.

She is not simply a female hero. She has different attributes and function.

Heroines obey secret rules.

Regis outlines rules of genre, but we also have expectations of the characters themselves

Heroine: Always beautiful and chaste

AT knows that you can find counterexamples – that’s not the point. She is trying to formulate classic understanding.

So what are beauty and chastity?

Notes tensions b/t beauty (excess) and chastity (restraint) – yet also akin. Both supposed to be pure, for example.

Explores complicated relationship between beauty and chastity.

Ex. Windflower.

So what is an antiheroine? Someone who is neither beautiful nor chaste.

This is not about taste, but about deviation of form.

Is the romance love narrative dependent on the heroine holding or acquiring beauty and chastity?

Focuses on An Unwilling Bride by Jo Beverly [I have GOT to read this!!! Like immediately. Where's my damn Kindle?]

Adheres to genres expectations and also plays with these questions.

She concludes that no, we can’t have an antiheroine.

Have to go outside genre to find antiheroine. Lucy Snow, heroine of Bronte’s  Villette is antiheroine.

[Someone suggests as antiheroine: Mary Balogh A Precious Jewel – heroine is neither chaste nor beautiful. pother remark that the hero in APJ  is kind of a second tier hero, almost as if the heroine has been punished.]

[Sela Carson, who is funny as all get out, announces that there is a whole paper to be written on hooker heroines. Also suggests, more seriously, that heroine in Covet may be a counterexample.]

6 responses so far

PCA Romance Panel 8: Exploring History, Genre, Media

Apr 04 2010 Published by under Pop Culture Association 2010

Following are some of my fallible, incomplete, impressionistic notes from a Romance Area panel session at the PCA conference in St. Louis. These are notes on works in progress,and do not purport to be complete records of the papers presented.  Please follow up with individual presenters for full copies of their papers or to have specific questions about their work addressed.

Romance VIII: Exploring History, Genre, Media
Session Chair: Darcy Martin, East Tennessee State University

“American Roots of the Popular Romance Novel: Sentimental, Domestic, and Dime Novels”‖ Maryan Wherry, Black Hawk College

Some American characteristics of romance (she gives lots of textual examples from sentimental, domestic and dime store novels)

  1. Individualism and meritocracy – self made women and men, challenge social rules, etc. Act boldly, show grit
  2. Sense of class – commoners, have no servants, wealth (self made) = worth, status is earned
  3. Racial issues
  4. Lack of hereditary class means we need behavioral rules. Ex Cult of True Womanhood – piety, chastity, submissiveness, and domesticity.
  5. Ever present frontier—wildness, unsettled, conflict, “out there”; (different from “wild west” which is a particular location, whereas frontier is conflict zone between civilized and uncivilized); always that threat out there
  6. Loving to hate the romance. Longstanding, not a product of 1970s feminism. Hawthorne comments to his editor about “damned scribbling women” was directed at romance novelist.

When you look at American romances, you have to look at surrounding culture and ideologies. It is more than contingent – “it happens to be the setting” – but influences text.

“Comparison of Romance Videogames to other Romance Media”‖ Jill Astley

She reads manga and Regency romance. And plays romance video games –otome. And reads and speaks Japanese.

Her website.

Substantial niche industry in Japan. Played on PSPs, mobile phones and personal computers. Games are usually gender coded.

Substantial m/m games targeted towards women.

She will focus on games targeted to girls and woman featuring heterosexual relationships.

You can have branching storylines and multiple heroes in these games – these are 2 of the biggest differences from other romance media.

Some common tropes:

Character archetypes: hottie rich guy, sports guy, playful guy, bad boy, dependable childhood friend etc.

Often characters subvert their archetypes to keep users’ interest

Heroine dropped into unfamiliar environment, often fantasy (different time and world)

Seemingly average heroine with special quality or ability (ex. Key to magical power)

Heroine as leader of all male group (captain of space ship or ruler of continent), but often symbolic power only

Invisible heroine – player supposed to feel like she is the heroine. So heroine rarely has avatar that shows up on screen like other characters.

You could lodge same feminist criticisms of these games as of romance novels. for example, that they can be hampered by strict gender roles for the heroine.

OTOH, some are feminist in plot characterization or both. Ex. Alice in Heartland – heroine is cynical and untrusting, she doesn’t perform femininity or change personality to catch a hero.

This genre is in its infancy. Lot of growth and perhaps change to come.

“Crikey, It’s Romance for Men: Australian Sports Novels and Westerns of the 1950s‖ Toni Johnson-Woods, University of Queensland, Australia

New President of Australian/New Zealand Popular Culture Association

“Australians write crappy romance” – something a lot of folks believe.

Gothic influence of the bush infects national literature – just survival is the key, forget courting

Mateship, not courtship, is grand narrative of Australia, so one place to seek romance is mateship between 2 men

Ex. Adventures of a Squatter (19th century) – classic romance, but b/t 2 men

Silence and lack of performative speech act is central to Australian romance

1950s –sports fiction, especially boxing and horse racing – so romantic, contain all generic markers of romance Ex. Barriers Down: A Racing Romance (194?)

Working class hero, aspirational female, obstacles to overcome.

Her question: Are these romance? Answer: These are romantic in a kind of Australian way.

Ends with an Australian  joke. Man walks up to woman in a bar and asks, “Wanna root?”. She replies: “I didn’t, but now I do, you sweet talking bastard.”

“Discovering Liminal Spaces: Gossip and Self-Exposure in Jennifer Crusie’s Romances and Eighteenth-Century Amatory Fiction”‖ Kimberly Baldus, University of Missouri, St. Louis

18th century British lit is her home territory. She links that to Jennifer Crusie.

Discovery fantasies in WTT. Shifting boundaries between public and private spaces.

Liminal spaces – borderlands where things blur, concepts merge

Circulation of gossip, breaks boundaries between private and public

Crusie inverts, note Mae Wests epigraph

18th century amatory fiction, esp the secret history: sheer voyeuristic erotic fiction

Collections of lurid gossip of public figures.

Manley. New Atlantis.

Gossip as a sensual pleasure, seductive

Anticipates Crusie

Her work informed by recent theoretical approaches to gossip. They diverge – some see it as repressive, some see it as opening new territory, creating distinctive kind of social space

Gossip constrains in TML. Maddie finally rejects TML’s constraining influence.

WTT – more complicated. Respects and acknowledges power of gossip to give power.
Public and private constantly collapse – screen doors, windows, remind us of permeable boundaries – almost invite intrusions as much as provide barrier

Generic attraction to the prurient aspects of the private. Overlooked in both early 18th century and in romance criticism.

5 responses so far

PCA Romance Panel 7: Romancing Vampires: Toothsome Heroes and Happy Endings

Apr 03 2010 Published by under Pop Culture Association 2010, Vampires

IMPORTANT NOTE:  I have disabled comments on this post deliberately.

Romance VII: Romancing Vampires: Toothsome Heroes and Happy Endings
Session Chair: Sarah S. G. Frantz, Fayetteville State University

“Sexual Exchange and Submission in Dracula: A Precursor to Gay Erotica Romance”‖ Haley Stokes

Homoerotic sexual exchange in Dracula as precursor to paranormal romance

Hard to fulfill genre requirements with two men. Tendency to write chicks with dicks, due to need for binary opposition between partners.

Conservative ideals of the genre – one partner, one true love, lifetime satisfaction with one partner  – pose unique  challenges for m/m romance.

Heteronormative space is still what is being negotiated.

Close textual analysis of Dracula, emphasizing homoeroticism of Dracula.

Story of Harker as story of bondage, homoerotic desire (cites several studies)

Dynamic of Harker and Dracula’s relationship does not require penetration, even if he wants to be bitten.

It’s about submission. Everything that happens to him in Dracula’s castle depends on the fact of his submission and his willingness/desire to submit.

Harker and Dracula experience a parody of married life that Harker is resisting. Harker cooks. Shared clothing. Etc.

Texts demonstrate a series of power exchanges stand in for sexual acts. Today, romance writers don’t have to do this.

Read Dracula as early attempt at sexual negotiation, creating a couple where the familiar binary does not exist.

“Twilight and Romeo And Juliet: The Portrayal of Love and Narrative Perspective”‖ Brent Gibson, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor

Language of Twilight puts it in tradition of the religion of love, a phrase coined by CS Lewis. Language of Christianity transferred to courtly love.

Escape v. rivalry

Escapism is fine, but if values of Christianity are taken seriously within story, love and God are rivals. One has to be subordinated to the other.

Talks about how battle between Godly and courtly love is worked out in literature of the medieval period, such as Tristan and Isolde, Troilus and Cressida, Paolo and Francesca

Continues through Renaissance, this battle between the two religions, Christianity and love.

Romeo and Juliet. This one’s a little different. They get married before consummating their love which suggests a proper subordination of religion of love to religion of God. But in other ways increases tension between two sets of values. Audience would have seen suicide as sending the victim to hell, yet they are pictured as entering paradise of lovers.

Twilight. One of many romances influenced by Romeo and Juliet and exemplifies another alteration in this tradition. Both religions are taken seriously. Not kept separate nor kept in tension. Two lovers literally idolize on another, language is very clear on this. Ex. Edward saying his lie to Bella in New Moon was “blackest kind of blasphemy”.

Meyer brings in actual religion. Edward says he is going to hell, the literal hell of Christian theology. Later he states he believes in a creator. We are told Carlyle is a Christian, he believes in God.

In Twilight, romance is elevated above religion in inversion of Medieval tactic. Ex. In Eclipse Edward agrees to make love to Bella prior to marriage, despite his earlier claim that he wouldn’t because it was the one Commandment he didn’t break. See also his views on Bella’s soul and making her a vampire.

Basically his Godly love goes out the window when Bella wants something.

Interesting that within the world of the story religion is taken seriously, and Meyer herself takes it seriously, but it is still subordinated to romance.

[A good comment on this from Margaret Toscano, Angela’s mom, who knows what she is talking about, the issue of Mormonism, and how in the Mormon version of heaven you have a big loving family,inclusive of romantic love, such that for a Mormon writer like Meyer, these two kinds of love are not so much in tension.]

“Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing: Christine Feehan’sCarpathian Heroes:”‖ Kat Schroeder, University of Washington

She wrote this paper for a class on gender studies in the media.

Who is reading the books? Younger and younger, girls as young as 10.

By age 14 reading adult series romance fiction.

Children consume media as a method to develop own views of intimate relationships in lieu of parental models.

Feehan claims all her heroines are “strong women”

CS defines strong in comparison to their male counterparts.

She focuses on full length novels where heroine started as human or believed themselves ot be human.

She describes Carpathians. Race of “not vampires”—turn into vampires unless they find their “light”, their mates.

Research Question 1 – do they reflect a relative parity of romance partners?

–age, maturity level, finances, career, sexual experience, general maturity

Research Question 11—DO novels give actual equivalent voice and agency to both the hero and heroines. Does one partner have power over the other?

Results:

Age – men much older (very funny chart here). Men b/t ages of 600-2000, women b/t age 23-27

Wealth – All but one of the women are either destitute or unemployed or the narrative doesn’t tell us; all of the men are vastly wealthy

Childhoods – all heroines had profoundly troubled childhoods while men, except one, were treasured

Sexual experience – only 3 not virgins, 2 excused by rape, 1 was widow but had marriage to a man with whom she didn’t enjoy sex

Her voice leads to his agency. Ex. She is upset, he seduces her, sometimes with force. She is angrym, he laughs.

Also TSTL heroines. Describes one heroine as being brilliant (surgeon at 18) but they aren’t (the surgeon has all the signd of being a vampire and has no idea what is happenign to her, for example. Also she jumps out a window instead of seeking help.)

Control dynamics:

–homicidal jealousy as a measure for love

–possessive controlling behaviors

                Naming convention (enfant, bebe, little one, diminutizing to a profound degree, unlike “dear”)

                In one book, Darius renames heroine, was called Rusty, he renames her Tempest. From that point forward, Feehan writes heroine from point of view of hero’s idealized version of her “Tempest”.

[Audience member notes in discussion that all of this is true in JR Ward’s BDB as well, and asks “what do we get from this?”.]

Comments are off for this post

PCA Romance Panel 6: Romance Publishing: Canadian Romance, ePublishing, and Erotica, Oh My!

Apr 02 2010 Published by under Pop Culture Association 2010

These are my notes from the PCA-ACA conference in 2010. Click here for contact information for the panelists in case you’d like to follow up. Please note that my notes are fallible, and attempt to communicate merely the gist of the presentations, not their entire substance.

Romance VI: Romance Publishing: Canadian Romance, ePublishing, and Erotica, Oh My!
Session Chair: Crystal Goldman, San Jose State University

“‘Can I set it in Canada?’: CanLit and Romance Publishing”‖ Jessica Taylor, University of Toronto

Taylor is an anthropologist, utilizes Bourdieu – field of forces , struggles

Thinks about how writers experience industry

Examines the plot in the field of literary production of romance in Canada

Is there romance in Canada and if so does anyone want to read about it

Notes her own gap: knowledge of French language publication especially coming out of Quebec

“Difficult to find romance in Canadian literature.” So said one academic when interviewed.

To be labeled “CanLit” one must fit certain criteria, for example, being Margaret Atwood. (LOLOL!!!)

Notes how hard it is to get any book into traditional media anywhere, but something specific going on in Canada.

With exception of HQN, large publishers in Canada don’t publish romance. Contrast with US.

Structure of govt funding also maintains divisions. Canada Council won’t fund romance.

The part of the literary field which is defined as Canadian is formed by all of these forces – media, industry, govt

Notes that HQN will change CDN cities to US cities. Asserts an ambivalence about whether rom novels can be set in CDN.  Agent she interviewed  said target audience for categories is US, so setting has to be accessible. If setting is CDN, must be purposefully so.

“Romance Rebound: Further Comparisons in e-Publishing and Print Publishers by Erotica and Erotic Romance Authors”‖ Crystal Goldman

Disagrees with Regis’s definition of romance novel. Now includes multiple heroes, sometimes no heroines at all, no longer a betrothal

Interviewed 10 romance authors published in both e and print erotic romance in 2007-8. Lauren Dane, Tawny Taylor, Sasha White, Kate Pierce, Kate Douglas, others.

At time of initial interview, huge erotica boom.

Popularity of erotic romance has waned a bit (Aphrodisia Kensington editor in PW, others cited as saying erotic romance is “overpublished”).

Saturation.

Market not as large as previously thought.

Many other genres heated up i nterms of editorial, which also explains contraction of erotic romance market.

She went back to the 10 interview  subjects recently, hypothesizing the ways the changes in the erotic market has impacted them.

Notes a few of the authors have since sold non-erotic works. They say they wanted to reach a larger audience.

Some wrote for Black Lace, and had to find other houses for work they would have submitted there.

Some signing contacts for 1 book instead of 2.

Softening in epub market maybe due to trad print publishing’s encroachment on market. Ex. Amazon.

Changes in publishing market especially key for romance.

Noting that ebooks selling very well compared to same book in print.

How does the raising of prices and embargo on ebooks affect sales? Not good.

Her new interviews found all of the authors had made or were planning to make some changes, whether in pen names, subgenre, moving bulk of work to e, etc.

Some of the changes in the authors’ careers is due to natural career progression and the recession, but some is due to changes in ebook market.

“Author Discussion: Print and Digital Publishing”‖ Amanda Berry, Harlequin; Jeannie Lin, Harlequin Historical; Sela Carsen, Samhain Publishing

Amanda Berry – publishes SSE.

Has been writing full time for 4 years.

Talking about how one aproaches HQN.  Two ways:

  1. Submit query letter
  2. Contest

She entered contest. Silhouette Desire. She won, they asked her to do it as SSE. She was puzzled, because she associated SSE with nannies and babies and doctors. Her book was about Hollywood, big shot producer and his assistant.

Jeannie Lin

Writes for Harlequin Historical Mills and Boon, in UK

Harlequin knows exactly how to market their lines and what they are looking for. Down to a science, although there is some leeway.

Decided to write the stories she loved. She loved Tolkein, Lindsay, and martial arts fiction (she is Vietnamese American). Louis Cha, which her grandparents and parents enjoyed.  Wanted to mix this part of her  into her writing.

Notes that selling romance is hard for anyone.

She write a book set in 8th century Tang dynasty China.

Lots of interest from other publishers but ultimately deemed too risky.

M&B saw international potential. You see more variation in M&B historical.

Her book is Butterfly Swords and is out later this year.

HQN gives authors a sheet to fill out for covers (check off what h/h look like, what landmarks, such as Space Needle, can be used), but none of her book’s characteristics were even on the sheet, so the editors asked her to come up with pictures to give them ideas.

Sela Carson

– paranormal romantic comedy novellas for Samhain publishing

Notes that she married the Air Force, was in London with small kids, in 2002, had always read romance.

She Googled “how to write a romance novel” and came up with eHarlequin which in 2002 was the place to be for a romance writer even if you didn’t want to write for Harlequin

Was having a hard time working and reworking a Regency.

Suddenly had a vision of a chase scene in a crypt in Louisiana that was funny

Wrote a 23000 word novella.

Not hot enough for EC or Loose-I.D.. Sat on it for a year.

Samhain popped up – suddenly novella had a home.

Print anthologies don’t sell all that well, but e anthologies do.

“If you’re writing short, you’re writing for an e-publisher.”

25 responses so far

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