Bibliography A-C

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

From this page you may return to the main Romance Scholarship page or go directly to

• Academics Who Write Romance
• Academic Online Essays (not published in academic journals or volumes)
• Bibliography D-G - the second part of our bibliography of academic articles and books about romance.
• Bibliography H-O - the third part of our bibliography of academic articles and books about romance.
• Bibliography P-Z - the end of our bibliography of academic articles and books about romance.
• Bibliography of Scholarship in Languages Other than English.
• Dissertation Abstracts
• Guides to the Genre
• Romance in the Media - lists news items/features items about romance.
• Romance Resources for Academics - lists romance-related resources which may be of interest to academics.
• Writers on Romance - lists items written about the genre by romance authors but not published in academic journals or books.

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A

Abartis, Caesarea, 1979. 

'The Ugly-Pretty, Dull-Bright, Weak-Strong Girl in the Gothic Mansion', Journal of Popular Culture, 13.2: 257-63.

Adams, Lisa, and John Heath, 2007. 

Why We Read What We Read: A Delightfully Opinionated Journey Through Contemporary Bestsellers. (Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks) Has a chapter titled, Hopefully Ever After: Love, Romance, and Relationships.

Adkins, Denice, Linda Esser & Diane Velasquez, 2006. 

‘Relations Between Librarians and Romance Readers: A Missouri Survey’, Public Libraries, 45.4, (July/August 2006): 54-64. Whole issue available as a pdf.

Adkins, Denice, Linda Esser, Diane Velasquez, and Heather L. Hill. 2008. 

"Romance novels in american public libraries: A study of collection development practices." Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services 32, no. 2: 59-67.

Ahlberg, Sofia, 2009. 

"Women and War in Contemporary Love Stories from Uganda and Nigeria." Comparative Literature Studies 46.2: 407-424.

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, Jennifer, 1981. 

Mills and Boon: Love and Oppression. Broadway [N.S.W.] : New South Wales Institute of Technology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.** Details from the National Library of Australia

Anderson, Rachel, 1974. 

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

Andresen, Julie Tetel, 1999. 

"Postmodern Identity (Crisis): Confessions of a Linguistic Historiographer and Romance Writer." in Romantic Conventions. Ed. Anne K. Kaler and Rosemary E. Johnson-Kurek (Bowling Green, OH: Popular) pp. 173-186. Excerpt

Ang, Ien, 1996. 

Living Room Wars: Rethinking Media Audiences for a Postmodern World (London & New York: Routledge). [Chapter 6 is titled 'Feminist Desire and Female Pleasure: On Janice Radway's Reading the Romance']

Ardis, Ann. 1996. 

"E. M. Hull, Mass Market Romance and the New Woman Novel in the Early Twentieth Century." Women's Writing 3, no. 3: 287-296. Abstract

Arnold, Marilyn. 1981.

"Pornography, Romance, and the Paradox of Freedom." In Ye Are Free to Choose: Agency and the Latter-Day Saint Woman, 50-62. Provo: Brigham Young Univ.

Aronowitz, Beverly-Lynne, 1988. 

'Women's Fiction and Popular Romance: Student Audience and Teaching Dilemma', Paper presented at the Annual National Literature Conference (3rd, Chicago, IL, October 14-15, 1988). 32 pgs. ERIC document ED298525. Abstract

Aronowitz, Beverly-Lynne, 1991. 

"The Dilemma of Teaching Women's Fiction: Is It Pop, Pulp, Porn-or Poetry?." Pennsylvania English 15.2: 1-20.

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.**

B

Bach, Evelyn, 1997.

'Sheik Fantasies: Orientalism and Feminine Desire in the Desert Romance', Hecate, 23.1: 9-40. Unpaginated version

Badik, Victoria L., 1997. 

"On Using Genre Fiction in Bibliotherapy", Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres 3.1-2: 242-245.

Barrett, Rebecca Kaye, 2003. 

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

Barrett-Fox, Rebecca, 2007. 

'Hope, Faith and Toughness: An Analysis of the Christian Hero.' in Empowerment versus Oppression: Twenty First Century Views of Popular Romance Novels. ed. Sally Goade, (Newcastle, U.K.:Cambridge Scholars Pub.) pp. 93-102.

Batsleer, Janet, 1981. 

‘Pulp in the Pink’, Spare Rib, 109: 52-5. Repr. in Bob Ashley (ed.), Reading Popular Narrative: A Source Book (London: Leicester University Press, 1989), 217-22. **

Batsleer, Janet, Tony Davies, Rebecca O'Rourke and Chris Weedon, 1985. 

Rewriting English: Cultural Politics of Gender and Class (London: Methuen). There are also a couple of other editions of this book, both published by Routledge. The chapter with most relevance for this bibliography is Chapter 5, "Gender and Genre: Women's Stories," on pages 86-105. A partial preview of that chapter, in one of the Routledge editions, is available.

Bell, Kathleen, 1995. 

'Cross-dressing in Wartime: Georgette Heyer's The Corinthian in its 1940 Context'. War Culture: Social Change and Changing Experience in World War Two Britain, Ed. Pat Kirkham and David Thoms (London: Lawrence and Wishart), 151-60. ** Reprinted in Georgette Heyer: A Critical Retrospective, ed. Mary Fahnestock-Thomas (Saraland AL: Prinny World Press, 2001): 461-72. **

Belsey, Catherine, 1993. 

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

Belsey, Catherine, 1994. 

Desire; Love Stories in Western Culture. (Oxford: Blackwell). Chapter 2( Reading Love Stories) touches on popular romance. Abstract.

Beidler, Peter G., 1991. 

'The Contemporary Indian Romance: A Review Essay', American Indian Culture and Research Journal , 15.4:97-125.

Bettinotti, Julia and Marie-Françoise Truel, 1997. 

"Lust and Dust: Desert Fabula in Romances and Media." Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres 3.1-2: 184-194.

Bettinotti, Julia, 1998. 

'Re-imagining the Gold Rush; Prospectors, Log Cabins and Mail-Order Brides in Contemporary Western Romances.' Northern Review, No. 19(Winter 1998): 170-180.

Betz, Phyllis M. 2009. 

Lesbian romance novels: a history and critical analysis. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. Description from the publisher.

Blake, Susan L., 2003. 

'What "Race" is the Sheik?: Rereading a Desert Romance', in Doubled Plots: Romance and History, see below, pp. 67-85. Via GoogleBooks[This is about E. M. Hull's The Sheik.]

Bold, Rudolph, 1980. 

'Trash in the Library', Library Journal, 105.10: 1138-39.

Booth, Sandra, 1997. 

"Paradox in Popular Romances of the 1990s: The Paranormal versus Feminist Humor." Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres 3.1-2: 94-106.

Bostian, Patricia Kennedy, 2008. 

'Amanda Scott: Bringing History to Life', Teaching American Literature: A Journal of Theory and Practice 2.2/3.[3]

Botts, Amber, 1999. 

'Cavewoman Impulses: The Jungian Shadow Archetype in Popular Romantic Fiction', in Romantic Conventions, see below, pp. 62-74.

Bowman, Barbara. 1983. 

"Victoria Holt's Gothic Romances: A Structuralist Inquiry." In Fleenor, Julian E. (ed.)The Female Gothic, 69-81. Montreal: Eden.

Bowring, Joanna and Margaret O’Brien, 2008. 

The Art of Romance: Mills & Boon and Harlequin Cover Designs, (Munich: Prestel). [This has a short history of the companies and some descriptions of the covers and then the rest of the book consists of photos of Mills & Boon and Harlequin book covers, many of which can be viewed here, and there are smaller selections here and here.]

Brackett, Kim Pettigrew, 2000. 

"Facework Strategies Among Romance Fiction Readers", The Social Science Journal, 37.3: 347-60.

Breslin, Carol Ann, 1999. 

'Medieval Magic and Witchcraft in the Popular Romance Novel', in Romantic Conventions, see below, pp. 75-85. Excerpt

Brown, Fahamisha Patricia, 2008. 

'Beverly Jenkins', Teaching American Literature: A Journal of Theory and Practice 2.2/3.[4]

Brown, Fahamisha Patricia, 2008. 

'Anita Richmond Bunkley', Teaching American Literature: A Journal of Theory and Practice 2.2/3.[5]

Brunt, Rosalind., 1984. 

'A Career in Love: The Romantic World of Barbara Cartland.' in Popular Fiction and Social Change. ed. Christopher Pawling , (New York: St Martin's), pp. 127-156. **

Bryce, Jane, 1996. 

"'A World of Caribbean Romance' Reformulating the Legend of Love or: 'Can a Caress Be Culturally Specific?'." in Framing the Word: Gender and Genre in Caribbean Women's Writing. Ed. Joan Anim-Addo (London: Whiting and Birch), pp. 108-127. **

Burley, Stephanie, 2000. 

"Shadows and Silhouettes: The Racial Politics of Category Romance." Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres 5.13-14: 324-343.

Burley, Stephanie, 2003. 

'What's a Nice Girl like You Doing in a Book like This?: Homoerotic Reading and Popular Romance', in Doubled Plots: Romance and History, see below, pp. 127-46. Excerpt

Burnett, Ann, & Rhea Reinhardt Beto, 2000. 

‘Reading Romance Novels: An Application of Parasocial Relationship Theory’, North Dakota Journal of Speech & Theatre, 13. [6]

Byatt, A.S. 1991. 

"An Honourable Escape: Georgette Heyer." in Passions of the Mind: Selected writings. London: Chatto & Windus. 258-265.

C

Cadogan, Mary, 1994. 

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

Calhoun-French, Diane M. 2000. 

"Of Love and Death: Murder and Mayhem Meet the Romance." Clues: A Journal of Detection, 21.1: 1-16.

Calhoun-French, Diane M., 1999. 

'Time-Travel and Related Phenomena in Contemporary Popular Romance Fiction', in Romantic Conventions, see below, pp. 100-12. Excerpt

Capelle, Annick, 1996. 

'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. 91-100. ** Excerpt 1, Excerpt 2

Carter, Catherine, 2008. 

"Poverty, Payment, Power: Kathleen Thompson Norris and Popular Romance." Studies in American Fiction 36.2: 197-220. Excerpt and Unpaginated version.

Castagna, JoAnn and Robin Radespiel, 1990. 

'Making Rape Romantic: A Study of Rosemary Rogers' "Steve and Ginny" Novels', in Women and Violence in Literature: An Essay Collection, ed. Katherine Anne Ackley (New York : Garland). **

Cawelti, John G. 1976. 

Adventure, Mystery, and Romance: Formula Stories as Art and Popular Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).

Chappel, Deborah K., 1997. 

'LaVyrle Spencer and the Anti-Essentialist Argument.' Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres 3.1-2:107-120

Charles, Helen, 1995. 

'(Not) Compromising: Inter-Skin Colour Relations', in Romance Revisited , ed. Jackie Stacey and Lynne Pearce (New York: New York UP), pp. 197-209. [The author says that she looks at 'inter-skin colour relations in the television programme Taboo (1993) along with Barbara Burford's novella, The Threshing Floor (1986) and Ann Allen Shockley's The Mistress and the Slave Girl (1987)'.]

Chelton, Mary K., 1991. 

'Unrestricted Body Parts and Predictable Bliss: The Audience Appeal of Formula Romances.' Library Journal 116.12: 44-49.

Chen, Eva Y.I., 2007. 

'Forms of Pleasure in the Reading of Popular Romance:Psychic and Cultural Dimensions.' in Empowerment versus Oppression: Twenty First Century Views of Popular Romance Novels. ed. Sally Goade, (Newcastle, U.K.:Cambridge Scholars Pub.) pp. 30-41.

Chopra, Radhika, 1995. 

'Wanted Men: Imaging the Hero in Popular Romantic Fiction' in Perspectives on Women: Canada and India, ed. Aparna Basu (Bombay: Allied Publishers). **

Chopra, Radhika, 1998. 

"Whose Face Do I See?: Anonymity and Authorship in Popular Romances." Indian Journal of Gender Studies 5.2: 185-200. **

Christian-Smith, Linda K., 1987. 

'Gender, Popular Culture, and Curriculum - Adolescent Romance Novels as Gender Text', Curriculum Inquiry, 17.4:365-406.

Christian-Smith, Linda K., 1988. 

"Romancing the girl : adolescent romance novels and the construction of femininity." in Becoming Feminine: The Politics of Popular Culture. Ed. by Roman, Leslie G., Linda K. Christian-Smith, and Elizabeth Ann Ellsworth (London: Falmer Press) pp. ?

Christian-Smith, Linda K., 1990. 

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

Christian-Smith, Linda K., 1993. 

"Voices of Resistance: Young Women Readers of Romance Fiction." in Beyond Silenced Voices: Class, Race, and Gender in United States Schoools, Ed. by Lois Wies and Michelle Fine (Albany: State University of New York Press) pp. 169-189. Excerpt

Christian-Smith, Linda K., 1994. 

"Young Women and Their Dream Lovers: Sexuality in Adolescent Fiction." in Sexual Cultures and the Construction of Adolescent Identities. Ed. Janice M. Irvine (Philadelphia : Temple University Press) pp. 206-227. Excerpt

Clancy, Kim, 1992. 

"Tania Modleski, Loving with a Vengeance: Mass-Produced Fantasies for Women." in Reading into Cultural Studies. Ed. Martin Barker and Anne Beezer, (London: Routledge) pp. 119-133.

Clark, Beverly Lyon; Bernier, Karen Gennari; Henneberry-Nassau, Michelle; Jenks, Lauren Beth; Moorman, Angie J.; Rhoades, Marah Bianca, 1996. 

'Reading Romance, Reading Ourselves', The Centennial Review, 40.2: 359-84.

Clawson, Laura, 2005. 

'Cowboys and Schoolteachers: Gender in Romance Novels, Secular and Christian', Sociological Perspectives, 48.4: 461-79. AbstractPDF

Cockin, Katharine, 2007. 

"Chicks and Lads in Contemporary Fiction." Anglistik und Englischunterricht, issue on Teaching Contemporary British Fiction, 69: 107-123. Index page only, as pdf.

Coddington, Lynn, 1997. 

"Wavering Between Worlds: Feminist Influences in the Romance Genre." Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres 3.1-2: 58-77.

Cohn, Jan, 1977. 

'The Romances of Mary Roberts Rinehart: Some Problems in the Study of Popular Culture', Journal of Popular Culture, 11.3: 581-590.

Cohn, Jan, 1988. 

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

Coles, Claire D., and M. Johnna Shamp, 1984. 

“Some Sexual, Personality, and Demographic Characteristics of Women Readers of Erotic Romances.” Archives of Sexual Behavior 13.3: 187-209.

Cook, Jon, 1988. 

“Fictional Fathers.” Sweet Dreams: Sexuality, Gender and Popular Fiction. Ed. Susannah Radstone. (London: Lawrence & Wishart), pp. 137-64. First page.

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.]

Crane, Lynda L., 1994. 

'Romance Novel Readers: in Search of Feminist Change?', Women's Studies, 23.3: 257-69.

Crawford, Mary, 1994. 

'Rethinking the Romance: Teaching the Content and Function of Gender Stereotypes in the Psychology of Women Course', Teaching of Psychology, 21: 151-153. Fragment of Article **

Creed, Barbara, 1984. 

'The Woman's Romance as Sexual Fantasy: Mills & Boon', in All Her Labours II: Embroidering the framework, ed. Margaret Allen, Jean Blackburn, Carol Johnson, Margaret King and Alison Mackinnon (Sydney: Hale and Iremonger). **

Creed, Barbara, 2003. 

Media Matrix: Sexing the New Reality (Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin). review here Contents page and excerpts [contains a chapter on Mills & Boon romances, titled 'Mills & Boon dot com: The beast in the bedroom']

Crusie, Jennifer, 1997. 

‘Romancing Reality: The Power of Romance Fiction to Reinforce and Re-Vision the Real’, first published in Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres, 3.1-2: 81-93. [An unpaginated version is available on Crusie's website.]

Crusie Smith, Jennifer, 1999. 

'This Is Not Your Mother's Cinderella: The Romance Novel as Feminist Fairy Tale', in Romantic Conventions, see below, pp. 51-61. Excerpt. Unpaginated version on Crusie's website.

Curthoys, Ann, and John Docker, 1990. 

'Popular Romance in the Postmodern Age. And an Unknown Australian Author', Continuum: The Australian Journal of Media & Culture, 4.1.[7]