City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works School of Arts & Sciences Theses Hunter College Spring 5-5-2018 The Romance Novel Cover Jessica D. Spears CUNY Hunter College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_sas_etds/350 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact:
[email protected] The Romance Novel Cover by Jessica Spears Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts (Art History), Hunter College, The City University of New York 2018 Thesis Sponsor: May 5, 2018 Maria Antonella Pelizzari Date Signature May 5, 2018 Thomas LaPadula Date Signature of Second Reader “The Romance Novel Cover” by Jessica Spears copyright and related rights waived via CC0 “I hereby waive all copyright and related or neighboring rights together with all associated claims and causes of action with respect to this work to the extent possible under the law.” All Images use is Restricted and not included under the Creative Commons 0. Table of Contents List of Illustrations . ii Introduction . 1 Chapter 1: The History of Paperback Publishing and Paperback Covers . 9 Chapter 2: The Nature of Big Book Historical Romance Covers . 24 Chapter 3: Images of Feminine Power and Submission . 35 Chapter 4: The Shame of Being Seen to Read Romance . 48 Chapter 5: Romance’s Relationship with Pornography and Sexual Advertising . 60 Chapter 6: The Male Figure on 1990s Romance Covers .