Read this and think on

I mentioned recently my intention to read the first (online, free access) issue of IASPR's Romance Journal. I have now done so and would heartily recommend that anyone who reads this blog takes a look at at least two of the articles:

There are six bodies in this relationship: an anthropological approach to the romance genre by Laura Vivanco and Kyra Kramer; and

Getting a good man to love: popular romance fiction and the problem of patriarchy by Catherine Roach

Both are well worth a read and provoke much thought.

Laura and Kyra's article looks at the various bodies represented by the protagonists' in the novel: the individual body (the literal physical character represented), the social body (representations of cultural identities) and the political body (the character in a particular political context) and how these all inter-relate so as to produce the fully-integrated HEA outcome the reader desires. If you're wondering about the image above, this is a reference to the heroine's socio-political body, or 'prism' through which the hero's socio political body or 'phallus' attains completion. I've wittered in various posts over the years about little crumbs of what's in this article - this is more satisying, infinitely more erudite and entertaining to boot.

Catherine Roach's article is excellent too. She begins by drawing parallels between the romance novel and the Christian story. This passage in particular resonated with me:

The true significance of this HEA, I submit, lies not in its presence at the end of every romance novel but in its presence in the larger culture. The Christian mythic narrative and the romance narrative both highlight eschatology. Both are narrative concerned with the eschaton, the end of the world or the ultimate destiny of the characters involved (from the Greek eschatos for 'last' or 'farthest'). A romance, from the very beginning of the story, promises its HEA; the end of the story is inherent from the very beginning, as part of its very narrative structure. The romance novel is narrative eschatology.......... The romance ending, like the Christian eschaton, is the end of all endings, the ending beyond endings.

Roach then goes on to talk about the 'deep work' that the romance novel is doing for women, reconciling women to the patriarchal society in which we live. Fascinating stuff.

So a good first issue from the Romance Journal. These were the two items that resonated with me but I also enjoyed an article about EM Hull's The Sheikh (which I've never read - but can now pretend otherwise) as well as Pam Rosenthl's review of a book by Cristina Nehring.