Despite the fact that it is perennially one of the best selling genres in literature, Romance is often looked down upon. Part of this is simple misogyny; as a culture we look down upon things that are seen as “for women.” However, not only are romance novels dominant best sellers, romance as a concept essentially pervades almost every other literary genre. In fact, it’s much harder to find a novel (or movie, or tv show or comic or even game) that doesn’t contain aspects of romance than one that does. So why is it so disparaged and really, what is “romance” anyway?
On this week’s special Valentines show, Hannah and Wayne are joined by returning guest Ayanni Cooper of the Sex, Love and Literature podcast and new guest, romance novelist Evelyn Pryce, to about all aspects of the romance genre, from its history to its scandals to its politics as well as it’s connection to other fiction genres and look at the many varied media types that the romance genre has crossed over into. Whether you consider yourself a fan of romance or not there’s a very complex and fascinating history here, so listen and let us know what you think in the comments.
Citations and Links:
- This episode’s Call for Comments
- Buy Evelyn’s books on Amazon
- “I Know What It Is When I Read It: Defining the Romance Genre” by Jennifer Crusie
- “Bad romance” by Constance Grady
- “RWA issues apology for infamous ‘one man, one woman’ romance definition poll” by Racheline Maltese
- “Danielle Steel works at a desk designed to look like a stack of her own books” by Emily Temple
- Heart’s Choice interactive romance novel
- Obey Me interactive romance novel
- “Romance Writers Of America Was Doing Better With Race — Until A Recent Award Choice” by Karen Grigsby Bates
- Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme
- Follow Evelyn on Twitter: @EvelynPryce
- Follow The SLL podcast on Twitter: @SexLoveLit
- Follow Ayanni on Twitter: @AyanniDoesStuff
- Follow Hannah on Twitter: @hannahleerogers
- Follow Wayne on Instagram: @tetroc2017
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