Beyond the Bodice Ripper: Innovation and Change in The
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© 2014 Andrea Cipriano Barra ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BEYOND THE BODICE RIPPER: INNOVATION AND CHANGE IN THE ROMANCE NOVEL INDUSTRY by ANDREA CIPRIANO BARRA A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School—New Brunswick Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Sociology Written under the direction of Karen A. Cerulo And approved by _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey OCTOBER 2014 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Beyond the Bodice Ripper: Innovation and Change in the Romance Novel Industry By ANDREA CIPRIANO BARRA Dissertation Director: Karen A. Cerulo Romance novels have changed significantly since they first entered the public consciousness. Instead of seeking to understand the changes that have occurred in the industry, in readership, in authorship, and in the romance novel product itself, both academic and popular perception has remained firmly in the early 1980s when many of the surface criticisms were still valid."Using Wendy Griswold’s (2004) idea of a cultural diamond, I analyze the multiple and sometimes overlapping relationships within broader trends in the romance industry based on content analysis and interviews with romance readers and authors. Three major issues emerge from this study. First, content of romance novels sampled from the past fourteen years is more reflective of contemporary ideas of love, sex, and relationships. Second, romance has been a leader and innovator in the trend of electronic publishing, with major independent presses adding to the proliferation of subgenres and pushing the boundaries of what is considered romance. Finally, readers have a complicated relationship with the act of reading romance and what the books mean in their lives. Understanding the enduring appeal of the happily ever after and the emotional escape are central to their enjoyment. " " " ii " " " " ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In grateful acknowledgement and dedication to the members of my dissertation committee: Karen Cerulo, Arlene Stein, Patrick Carr, and Katherine Walker. For all of your commitment to my study and support of my work, I am in your debt. Thank you for believing that romance novels and their readers have something important to say. To my parents, Vincent Barra and Michele Blair, without whom this would have never been accomplished. To my sister, Amy Barra, for the endless talks and practical advice. To my “Cool Kids” (Elizabeth Williamson, Karen Stein, and Monique Porow), who helped form the ideas and understood when I thought I could not write one more word. And to all of my amazing friends (especially Michael McDonald) for making me believe it could be done. iii " " ! TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract………………………………………………………………………………ii Acknowledgements………………………………………….………………………iii List of Tables and Figures……………………………………………………...…….v Chapter 1—Introduction………………………………………………………...........1 Chapter 2—Romance Novel Content………………………………………….…….31 Chapter 3—Electronic Publication……………………………………………..……72 Chapter 4—Reader Understandings of Romance Novels…………..………………100 Chapter 5—Conclusion…………………………………………………………..…129 Appendices Appendix A. Sample and Methods………………………………………….144 Appendix B. List of Bestselling Romance Novels by Year…………………150 Appendix C. Bestselling Authors of Romance Novels, 2000-2013…………170 Appendix D. Demographic Information for Interview Subjects…………….173 Appendix E. Additional List of Book Characteristics in Content Analysis…175 References………………………………………………………………...…………177 ! ! iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES TABLES Table 1. Books included in content analysis…………………………………………40 Table 2. Selected characteristics of books used in content analysis…………………45 FIGURES Figure 1. The Cultural Diamond……………………………………..………………..4 Figure 2. Romance content in the cultural diamond…………………………………32 Figure 3. Romance electronic publishing in the cultural diamond…………………..73 Figure 4. Reader response to romance in the cultural diamond….…………………102 v ! 1 Chapter 1—Introduction Everything you think you know about romance novels is wrong. It is either outdated, stereotyped, or flat out incorrect. Unlike nearly every other popular media genre, its misperceptions have persisted to create a nearly mythical story of what romance novels are, who reads them, who writes them, and how they are consumed. Despite these stereotypes being nearly thirty years out of date, ask any non-romance reader to explain these novels to you and you will get very similar responses: “trashy”, “porn for women”, “read by bored housewives”, “formulaic”, “easy to write”, “no plot”, “Fabio covers”. Every romance reader and author has heard them all. Ask that same non-romance reader if they have ever tried one and the answer is almost universally no. What is the source of this disdain and its dogged endurance? We can point to several moments in the story of romance novels that created the mythos. First, the explosion of the market-driven category1 novels—known as Harlequins for their publisher—created the notion that author and story were of lesser importance to romance readers and writers than other genre fiction. Second, the covers of the novels, which at the beginning nearly always featured couples in the classic “clinch” pose (typically a long-haired, bare chested man (often the male model Fabio in the 1980s) and a buxom, beautiful woman spilling out of the top her historically styled dress) gave the books a less serious (and often embarrassing) face. Third, the marketing of romance novels to (and their early adoption by) young housewives or stay at home mothers as a relaxing change from the drudgery of domestic life reinforced them as frivolous escapism. Fourth, and 1 There are two major types of romance novels: “single title” and “category” books. Category are published in the United States and Canada under the Harlequin and Silhouette imprints and in Great Britain under the Mills and Boon imprint. Generally, single titles are much longer than categories (which are usually fewer than 200 pages) and are distinguished by author or genre rather than “line”. 2 most important, the subject matter of the books. Making romantic relationships and love the focus of the story, along with featuring female protagonists helped to ensure romance’s mockery in popular culture, as has been the case with many other female- centered media products such as romantic comedies and soap operas. Instead of seeking to understand the changes that have occurred in the industry, in readership, in authorship, and in the romance novel product itself, both academic and popular perception has remained firmly in the early 1980s when some of the surface criticisms were still valid. It is true that early romance novels, reflective of the attitudes of a large segment of American women at the time, were more regressive in their understandings of women and their relationships with the men they fell in love with. It is also true that category romance novels were written in generally formulaic ways and were short, easy reads (though the true revolutionaries, the long historical novels, are roundly ignored, except to criticize their covers). And it is true that a majority of women who read the books at the time were wives and mothers2. We can see, then, where the ideas came from, but it is a much more difficult prospect to understand why so many of these notions have not dispelled, despite much evidence to the contrary. This study aims to add three significant contributions to the study of popular romance novels and their industry: 1) To analyze and understand romance novel content as it is currently written and to demonstrate that it has changed significantly since the early 1980s when the first studies of the genre were written; 2) To detail and explain how innovation and change in the romance industry resulted in the use of electronic publishing as a major segment of the market, which in turn led to significant changes in 2 There isn’t much market data available for readership in the early 1980s. Radway (1984) reports that Harlequin was clear at the time that their readers reflected the demographic and social characteristics of American women as a whole. 3 the traditional publishing sector; and 3) To better understand the complex relationship readers (and authors) of romance continue to have with reading romance novels, their content, and the greater society’s perceptions of the books and their readers. In order to look at the multiple aspects of the romance novel, I use Wendy Griswold’s (2004) idea of a cultural diamond. In this concept, culture industries have four major components: cultural object (book), producer (author), consumer (reader), and the social world. The interactions and relationships between the four parts help to understand the nature of that particular culture industry (see Figure 1). I could, as Griswold does, use the diamond to look at the industry as a whole. There are, indeed, processes that unify the entirety of the romance novel apparatus. I believe this might be too broad of a spectrum to undertake in one work, however, given the size and scope of an over billion dollar entity. So rather than simply discuss the connections between the pieces of the romance puzzle, I will attempt here to illuminate the multiple and sometimes overlapping relationships within broader trends