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
