Romance Novels
"Mind candy" critics declare, adamant about the intellect-eroding properties of romance novels which account for half of all mass-market paperback sales. The phenomenal sales seem only to intensify the attacks of those who object to the simplistic plots and flat characters of the novels. Some see these attacks as a chauvinisticrefusal to take seriously this popular literature, written and edited largely by women for a mostly female audience. But many of the genre's sternest critics are other women who condemn romance novels as dangerously passive texts that encourage readers to find in the fictional world consolation for the fulfillment that a patriarchal culture denies them.
The very term "romance novel" is used pejoratively, and the image of romance readers as bored and boring housewives who live vicariously through the fantastic experiences of incredible characters persists even in the face of evidence that refutes the stereotype. Janice Radway's Reading the Romance suggests that women's reasons for reading romance are complex. But even a defender like Radway appears ambivalent about the romance genre. Her limited sample reinforces the idea that romance readers are mostly housewives who lead limited lives, and in her introduction to the 1991 edition of her study, Radway makes clear that she sees romance readers as distinctly "other" women from whom she and her peers are separated "by class, occupation, and race."
Romance novels have always been frowned upon by champions of high culture who value fiction for its originality and see formulaic romance novels as sentimental trash.
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