Romance Scholarship

A bibliography of academic articles and books about romance.

Items with the "**" have not been personally checked. This means that the details given in the entry may not be entirely accurate.

For romance-related resources which may be of interest to academics see the Romance Resources for Academics page.

For items written about romance by romance authors but not published in academic journals or books see the Writers on Romance page.

For news items/features items about romance see the Romance in the Media page.

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Alberts, J. K., 1986. 

‘The role of couples' conversations in relationship development: A content analysis of courtship talk in Harlequin romance novels’, Communication Quarterly, 34: 127-142. **

Anderson, Rachel, 1974. 

The Purple Heart Throbs: The Sub-literature of Love (London: Hodder and Stoughton).

Assiter, Alison, 1988. 

‘Romance Fiction, Porn for Women?’, in Perspectives on Pornography: Sexuality in Film and Literature, ed. Gary Day & Clive Bloom (New York: St. Martin’s), pp. 101-112.**

Barrett, Rebecca Kaye, 2003. 

‘Higher Love: What Women Gain from Christian Romance Novels’, Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 4. [1]

Belsey, Catherine, 1993. 

'Writing About Desire', The Glasgow Review, 2. [2]

Burnett, Ann, & Rhea Reinhardt Beto, 2000. 

‘Reading Romance Novels: An Application of Parasocial Relationship Theory’, North Dakota Journal of Speech & Theatre, 13. [3]

Cadogan, Mary, 1994. 

And Then Their Hearts Stood Still: An Exuberant Look at Romantic Fiction Past and Present (London: Macmillan).

Capelle, Annick, 'Harlequin Romances in Western Europe

The Cultural Interactions of Romantic Literature', in European Readings of American Popular Culture, ed. John Dean & Jean-Paul Gabilliet (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press), pp. 91-???. **

Christian-Smith, Linda K., 1990. 

Becoming a Woman Through Romance (New York; London: Routledge).

Cohn, Jan, 1988. 

Romance and the Erotics of Property: Mass-Market Fiction for Women (Durham and London: Duke UP). **

Coward, Rosalind, 1984. 

'An Overwhelming Desire', in Female Desire: Women’s Sexuality Today (London: Paladin Grafton Books), pp. 187-196. [This is the chapter which focuses on the romance.]

Crusie, Jennifer, 1997. 

‘Romancing Reality: The Power of Romance Fiction to Reinforce and Re-Vision the Real’, [4], first published in Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres, 1-2: 81-93.

Crusie Smith, Jennifer, 1999. 

'This Is Not Your Mother's Cinderella: The Romance Novel as Feminist Fairy Tale', in Romantic Conventions, ed. Anne Kaler and Rosemary Johnson-Kurek (see below), pp. 51-61. [5]

Darbyshire, Peter, 2000. 

‘Romancing the World: Harlequin Romances, the Capitalist Dream, and the Conquest of Europe and Asia’, Studies in Popular Culture 23.1 [6]

Darbyshire, Peter, 2002. 

‘The Politics of Love: Harlequin Romances and the Christian Right’, Journal of Popular Culture (Popular Culture Center, Bowling Green State Univ., OH) (35:4) [Spring 2002]: 75-87.

Diekman, A. B., McDonald, M., & Gardner, W. L., 2000. 

'Love Means Never Having To Be Careful: The Relationship Between Reading Romance Novels and Safe Sex Behavior', Psychology of Women Quarterly, 24.2: 179 - 188. Abstract **

Dixon, jay, 1999. 

The Romance Fiction of Mills & Boon 1909-1990s (London: UCL Press).

Doubled Plots: Romance and History, 

Susan Strehle and Mary Paniccia Carden, eds. UP of Mississippi, 2003.

Douglas, Ann, 1980. 

'Soft-Porn Culture: Punishing the Liberated Woman.' The New Republic Vol.183, No.9 （August 30, 1980): 25-29.

Dubino, Jeanne. 1993. 

“The Cinderella Complex: Romance Fiction, Patriarchy, and Capitalism.” Journal of Popular Culture, 27.3: 103-118.

Ebert, Teresa L., 1988. 

'The Romance of Patriarchy: Ideology, Subjectivity, and Postmodern Feminist Cultural Theory', Cultural Critique, 10: 19-57.

Flesch, Juliet, 2004. 

From Australia With Love: A History of Modern Australian Popular Romance Novels (Fremantle, W.A.: Curtin University Books).

Fox, Pamela, 1994. 

'The "Revolt of the Gentle": Romance and the Politics of Resistance in Working-Class Women's Writing', NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, 27.2: 140-160.

Frantz, Sarah S. G. 

"'Expressing' Herself: The Romance Novel and the Feminine Will to Power," in Scorned Literature: Essays on the History and Criticism of Popular Mass-Produced Fiction in America. Eds. Lydia Cushman Schurman and Deidre Johnson. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2002. 17-36.

Frenier, Mariam Darce, 1988. 

Good-bye Heathcliff: Changing Heroes, Heroines, Roles, and Values in Women’s Category Romances, Contributions in Women’s Studies, no. 94. (New York: Greenwood Press). **

Ganguly, Keya. 1991. 

'Alien(ated) Readers: Harlequin Romances and the Politics of Popular Culture', Communication, 12: 129-50. **

Grescoe, Paul, 1996. 

The Merchants of Venus: Inside Harlequin and the Empire of Romance (Vancouver, B.C.: Raincoast). **

Hermes, Joke, 1992. 

‘Sexuality in Lesbian Romance Fiction’, Feminist Review, 42: 49-66.

Hinnant, Charles H., 2003.

"Desire and the Marketplace: A Reading of Kathleen Woodiwiss's The Flame and the Flower," in ;Doubled Plots: Romance and History, : Susan Strehle and Mary Paniccia Carden, eds. UP of Mississippi, 2003: 147-164.

Hubbard, Rita C., 1992. 

'Magic and Transformation: Relationships in Popular Romance Novels, 1950 to the 1980s', in Popular Culture: An Introductory Text, ed. Kevin Lause & Jack Nachbar (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press), pp. 476-488. **

Jensen, Margaret Ann, 1984. 

Love's $weet Return: The Harlequin Story (Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Popular Press). **

Jones, Ann Rosalind, 1986. 

‘Mills & Boon Meets Feminism’, in The Progress of Romance: The Politics of Popular Fiction, ed. Jean Radford (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul), pp. 195-218.

Juhasz, Suzanne, 1988. 

‘Texts to Grow On: Reading Women’s Romance Fiction’, Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, 7:2: 239-259.

Juhasz, Suzanne, 1998. 

'Lesbian Romance Fiction and the Plotting of Desire: Narrative Theory, Lesbian Identity, and Reading Practice', Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, 17.1: 65-82.

Kramer, Daniela & Moore, Michael, 2001. 

‘Gender Roles, Romantic Fiction and Family Therapy’, Psycoloquy 12,#24 [7]

Krentz, Jayne Ann, Ed. 

Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992).

Light, Alison. 1984. 

‘Returning to Manderley – Romance Fiction, Female Sexuality and Class’, Feminist Review, 16: 7-25.

Margolies, David, 1982. 

‘Mills & Boon -- Guilt without sex’, Red Letters, 14: 5-13. **

Markert, John, 1985. 

'Romance Publishing and the Production of Culture', Poetics, 14: 1-25. **

Masteller, Jean Carwile, 1996. 

'Romancing the Reader: From Laura Jean Libbey to Harlequin Romance and Beyond', in Pioneers, Passionate Ladies, and Private Eyes: Dime Novels, Series Books, and Paperbacks, ed. Larry E. Sullivan, and Lydia Cushman Schurman (New York: Haworth Press). **

McAleer, Joseph, 1999. 

Passion's Fortune: The Story of Mills & Boon (Oxford: Oxford University Press). **

McCaffery, Kate, 1994. 

‘Palimpsest of Desire: The Re-Emergence of the American Captivity Narrative as Pulp Romance’, Journal of Popular Culture, 27.4: 43-56. **

McKnight-Trontz, Jennifer, 2002. 

The Look of Love: The Art of the Romance Novel (Princeton Architectural Press). ** [This is about the cover art of romance novels from the 1940s to the 1970s]

Miles, Angela, 1988. 

‘Confessions of a Harlequin Reader: Learning Romance and the Myth of Male Mothers’, Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory, 12, no. 1-2: 1-36. **

Mitchell, Karen S., 1996. 

‘Ever After: Reading the Women Who Read (and Re-Write) Romances’, Theatre Topics, 6.1: 51-69. [As might be supposed from the title of the Journal, this is about drama: the author 'decided to stage a performance centered on the popular romance genre and the women who read these novels']

Modleski, Tania, 1980. 

‘The Disappearing Act: A Study of Harlequin Romances’, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 5: 435-448.

Modleski, Tania, 1982. 

Loving with a Vengeance: Mass-produced fantasies for women (New York: Routledge).

Morgan, Paula, 2003. 

“Like Bush Fire in My Arms”: Interrogating the World of Caribbean Romance, Journal of Popular Culture 36.4: 804-827.

Mulhern, Chieko Irie, 1989. 

'Japanese Harlequin Romances as Transcultural Woman's Fiction', The Journal of Asian Studies, 48.1: 50-70.

Mussell, Kay, 1984. 

Fantasy and Reconciliation: Contemporary Formulas of Women's Romance Fiction (Westport CT: Greenwood Press). **

Neal, Lynn S, 2006. 

Romancing God: Evangelical Women and Inspirational Fiction (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press).

North American Romance Writers, 1999. 

ed. Kay Mussell and Johanna Tuñón (Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press).

Parameswaran Radhika, 1999. 

'Western Romance Fiction as English-Language Media in Postcolonial India', Journal of Communication, 49.3: 84-105. Abstract PDF [8]

Parameswaran, Radhika, 2002. 

'Reading Fictions of Romance: Gender, Sexuality, and Nationalism in Postcolonial India', Journal of Communication, 52.4: 832-851. Abstract PDF[9]

Philips Deborah, 2000. 

'Shopping for Men: The Single Woman Narrative', Women: a Cultural Review, 11.3: 238-251. Abstract

Puri, Jyoti, 1997. 

‘Reading Romance Novels in Postcolonial India’, Gender & Society, 11.4: 434-452.

Rabine, Leslie W., 1985. 

‘Romance in the Age of Electronics: Harlequin Enterprises’, Feminist Studies 11.1: 39-60.

Radway, Janice A., 1983. 

‘Women Read the Romance: The Interaction of Text and Context’, Feminist Studies, 9.1: 53-78.

Radway, Janice A., 1991. 

Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press). First published in 1984. The 1991 edition contains a new introduction by the author.

Regis, Pamela, 2003. 

A Natural History of the Romance Novel (Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press).

Ricker-Wilson, Carol, 1999. 

‘Busting Textual Bodices: Gender, Reading, and the Popular Romance’, English Journal, 88:3: 57-64.

Romantic Conventions, 1999. 

Anne K. Kaler and Rosemary E. Johnson-Kurek, eds. Bowling Green State University Popular Press.

Ryder, M. E., 1999. 

'Smoke and mirrors: Event patterns in the discourse structure of a romance novel', Journal of Pragmatics, 31.8: 1067-1080. Abstract **

Scott, Alison M. 2002. 

'Romance in the Stacks; or, Popular Romance Fiction Imperiled', in Scorned Literature: Essays on the History and Criticism of Popular Mass-Produced Fiction in America, ed. Lydia Cushman Schurman and Deidre Johnson, Contributions to the Study of Popular Culture, 75 (Westport, CT: Greenwood),pp. 213-224.

Shapiro, Joan, & Lee Kroeger, 1991. 

‘Is Life a Romantic Novel? The Relationship Between Attitudes About Intimate Relationships and the Popular Media’, American Journal of Family Therapy, 19.3: 226-236. **

Snitow, Ann Barr, 1979. 

‘Mass Market Romance: Pornography for Women is Different’, Radical History Review 20 (Spring/Summer 1979):141-61. Republished in Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality 1983., ed. Ann Snitow, Christine Stansell & Sharon Thompson (New York: Monthly Review Press), pp. 245-263. Republished in "Feminist Literary Theory: A Reader", ed. Mary Eagleton. New York: Basil Blacwell, 1986.

Stacey, Jackie & Lynne Pearce, 1995. 

'The Heart of the Matter: Feminists Revisit Romance', in Romance Revisited, ed. Lynne Pearce & Jackie Stacey (New York: New York University Press), pp. 11-??. **

Stotesbury, John A., 2004 

'Genre and Islam in Recent Anglophone Romantic Fiction', in Refracting the Canon in Contemporary British Literature and Film, ed. Christian Gutleben & Susana Onega, Postmodern Studies, 35 (Amsterdam: Rodopi), pp. 69-82. Abstract **

Teo, Hsu-Ming, 2004. 

'Romancing the Raj: Interracial Relations in Anglo-Indian Romance Novels', History of Intellectual Culture, 4.1.[10]

Thurston, Carol, 1987. 

The Romance Revolution: Erotic Novels for Women and the Quest for a New Sexual Identity (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press).

Timson, Beth S. 

‘The Drug Store Novel: Popular Romantic Fiction and the Mainstream Tradition’, Studies in Popular Culture, 6: 88-96. **

Treacher, Amal, 1988. 

‘What is life without my love: Desire and romantic fiction’, in Sweet Dreams – Sexuality, Gender and Popular Fiction, ed. Susannah Radstone (London: Lawrence & Wishart), pp. 73-90. **

Wardrop, Stephanie, 1997. 

'Last of the Red Hot Mohicans: Miscegenation in the Popular American Romance', MELUS, 22. 2, Popular Literature and Film: 61-74.

Weisser, Susan Ostrov. 1994. 

'The Wonderful-Terrible Bitch Figure in Harlequin Novels', in Feminist Nightmares: Women at Odds: Feminism and the Problem of Sisterhood, ed. Susan Ostrov Weisser and Jennifer Fleischner (New York: New York University Press), pp. 269-82. **

Whissell, Cynthia, 1996. 

‘Mate Selection in Popular Women's Fiction’, Human Nature, 7: 427-447. **

Wood, Julia T., 2001. 

'The normalization of violence in heterosexual romantic relationships: Women's narratives of love and violence', Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 18.2: 239-261.** There is an abstract and a press release reporting Wood's findings.