Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature 2nd Edition

by Janice A. Radway (Author)

14 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0807843499

ISBN-10: 0807843490

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Originally published in 1984, Reading the Romance challenges popular (and often demeaning) myths about why romantic fiction, one of publishing's most lucrative categories, captivates millions of women readers. Among those who have disparaged romance reading are feminists, literary critics, and theorists of mass culture. They claim that romances enforce the woman reader's dependence on men and acceptance of the repressive ideology purveyed by popular culture. Radway questions such claims, arguing that critical attention "must shift from the text itself, taken in isolation, to the complex social event of reading." She examines that event, from the complicated business of publishing and distribution to the individual reader's engagement with the text.

Radway's provocative approach combines reader-response criticism with anthropology and feminist psychology. Asking readers themselves to explore their reading motives, habits, and rewards, she conducted interviews in a midwestern town with forty-two romance readers whom she met through Dorothy Evans, a chain bookstore employee who has earned a reputation as an expert on romantic fiction. Evans defends her customers' choice of entertainment; reading romances, she tells Radway, is no more harmful than watching sports on television.

"We read books so we won't cry" is the poignant explanation one woman offers for her reading habit. Indeed, Radway found that while the women she studied devote themselves to nurturing their families, these wives and mothers receive insufficient devotion or nurturance in return. In romances the women find not only escape from the demanding and often tiresome routines of their lives but also a hero who supplies the tenderness and admiring attention that they have learned not to expect.

The heroines admired by Radway's group defy the expected stereotypes; they are strong, independent, and intelligent. That such characters often find themselves to be victims of male aggression and almost always resign themselves to accepting conventional roles in life has less to do, Radway argues, with the women readers' fantasies and choices than with their need to deal with a fear of masculine dominance.

These romance readers resent not only the limited choices in their own lives but the patronizing atitude that men especially express toward their reading tastes. In fact, women read romances both to protest and to escape temporarily the narrowly defined role prescribed for them by a patriarchal culture. Paradoxically, the books that they read make conventional roles for women seem desirable. It is this complex relationship between culture, text, and woman reader that Radway urges feminists to address. Romance readers, she argues, should be encouraged to deliver their protests in the arena of actual social relations rather than to act them out in the solitude of the imagination.

In a new introduction, Janice Radway places the book within the context of current scholarship and offers both an explanation and critique of the study's limitations.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Explores not only the conventions of the romance novel but also the ways in which both these novels and their readers defy certain stereotypes, usually proliferated by people who don't read the books themselves. Radway's study is a fascinating and controversial bit of sociological literary criticism.--MetroMagazine

[Reading the Romance] is in a class by itself. It set[s] a standard for cultural studies, scarcely ever matched in subsequent work, of testing theories about the effects of mass culture with close study of the people presumably under its influence.--Journal of American History

A consistently absorbing and often brilliant analysis of [romance novels] and their eager consumers.--Sandra M. Gilbert, New York Times Book Review

A superb analysis of a contemporary phenomenon and an intelligent and moving depiction of how the women who consume these novels see their lives.--Journal of Communication

From the Back Cover

Originally published in 1984, Reading The Romance challenges popular (and often demeaning) myths about why romantic fiction, one of publishing's most lucrative categories, captivates millions of women readers. In a new introduction, Janice Radway places the book within the context of current scholarship and offers both an explanation and critique of the study's limitations.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product details

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press; 2 edition (November 30, 1991)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0807843490
ISBN-13: 978-0807843499
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.7 x 8.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 14 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #159,110 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #23 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Books & Reading > History of Books
- #96 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Genres & Styles > Gothic & Romance
- #200 in Books > Textbooks > Social Sciences > Gender Studies

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Steven Reynolds

Enlightening

April 2, 2002

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Despite the growing popularity of cultural studies, it's still surprising to find a literary academic who embraces popular culture. More surprising still is that Janice Radway managed to head down this path almost twenty years ago. Recognizing that a theorist who refuses to engage with popular fiction is ignoring perhaps 90% of what people actually read, Radway does not dismiss romantic fiction as beneath her attention. Rather, she sets out to conduct an empirical study into the genre. In doing so, she addresses some important questions: Why do women read romance? What social and psychological needs does it meet? If there is an "ideal" romance, what are its components and why? How does the unique language of romance do its work? In answering these, Radway not only manages to define an entire genre. She also draws out some rather chilling and not so obvious conclusions about the role of romantic fiction in preventing the feminist agenda from taking hold. And unlike many criticisms of romance, Radway's is based on observation, experience and facts. Her preference for foregrounding the evidence rather than her own views is mightily refreshing. My only reservation is the ease with which she extrapolates the reading experiences of a small group of women into conclusions about American culture in general. However, her excellent introduction to the second edition recognizes this, positions her study in relation to the emerging discipline of cultural studies, and suggests ways in which her study's insights might be further explored and tested. I strongly recommend this to anyone interested in the romance genre, or in academic approaches to popular fiction in general. Readers, writers, students and critics will all find something to learn here.

13 people found this helpful

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jessica

Should be mandatory reading

March 9, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

hugely influential work of scholarship. Should be mandatory reading for any contemporary lit class.

3 people found this helpful

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Difficult copy to read

September 7, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Information contained in the book was useful. However the fog was so small that I absolutely can't read it at all and I don't even wear glasses. I'm not quite sure how it was printed but it's a difficult copy

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Michael usher

A scholarly book somewhat difficult to stay awake.

November 9, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

A scholarly book somewhat difficult to stay awake.

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August 9, 2005

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I found the responses of the individuals interviewed interesting, but the analysis rather uninteresting. Unless you are a proponent of feminist theory the authors thoughts and interpretations of the women's reasons for reading romance novels is bound to seem pretty suspect. She does own up to this in the introduction, and the material is still interesting, I just got sick of hearing about patriarchal marriages mighty quick.

4 people found this helpful

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October 23, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Shoddy ethnography, but that's what could be expected at the time. There are some hidden gems in the subtext, though the author doesn't seem to have realized it. Her thinly veiled contempt for her subjects and topic make this hard to swallow. If you hate romance, why write about it?

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Matthew Thorn

A major contribution to the field of cultural studies

March 7, 2001

Format: Paperback

I was disappointed to see that an earlier reviewer found the book condescending. I think it is true that when the book was written, for a largely academic audience, back in 1984, she probably felt she had to bend over backwards to have her work taken seriously by academics, so she couldn't have written "as a fan." But condescending? I really didn't think so. This book was inspirational to me when I was trying to find a way to approach the material I study (and personally enjoy), Japanese girls' and women's comics. I don't know if Janice (whom I know and admire) is a fan of romance novels, but I know she has always enjoyed popular literature, and that she really tried, in this book, to see romances as their readers see them, and to convey that point of view to academics and feminists who have always looked on romance with contempt. But think about it: if she had written the book from a "fannish," "gee-aren't-romance-novels-great" point of view, it would have ended up as a book by and for romance readers, and wouldn't have contributed to helping non romance-readers understand the genre. I would recommend this book to A) anyone who has always considered "genre fiction" to be pap, B) feminists who want to break out of the "feminists vs. non-feminist women" paradigm, and C) romance readers who would like some ammunition in defending the genre to others.

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Most recent customer reviews

Sarshi

Good points, bad points

Ambivalence is the name of my game here. I find Radice's points interesting, but at the same time I cannot but find issues with her reasoning and method.Read more

Published on September 12, 2011

doomsdayer520

Pretentious Over-Analysis

Not being a fan of romance novels, I approached this analysis by Radway from a cultural studies standpoint.Read more

Published on April 13, 2004

Mike Dargan

Where is Smithton?

Janice Radway goes to great lengths to describe the town, Smithton, where she claims to have assessed the reading habits of romance novel maven Dorothy "Dot" Evans and her...Read more

Published on December 5, 2003

Weaver

Conflict of Interest Makes it Interesting

An interesting book and a pretty good read. With the exception of the first chapter, which is an enlightening but pretty dry history of book publishing, the author writes with an...Read more

Published on July 18, 2002

frumiousb

Smart and (mostly) fair

It's easy to look at the title and expect an exercise in shooting fish in a barrel. There's been more than enough written about the romance as rape fantasy or patriarchal...Read more

Published on January 17, 2001

L. S. Tucker

A bit condescending, but interesting

I found the book interesting, but there was an undercurrent of snobbishness. The author "tries" to be "fair and understanding" to romance books and readers.Read more

Published on March 12, 2000

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