Reading and Writing Muslim Romance Online

Claire Parnell (University of Melbourne) Session 8.2: Muslim and Middle Eastern Romances Abstract: Participatory media production through online self – publishing platforms affects the publishing field in interesting and important ways. In particular, the call for diverse representation in genre fiction has been growing in online communities, such as Wattpad, for some time. Narratives that […]

Muslims reading romance: Bruneian considerations of “Halal” and romance novels

Dr Katrina Mohd Daud (Universiti Brunei Darussalam) Session 8.1: Muslim and Middle Eastern Romances Abstract: In 2017, Bruneian writer Aisha Malik self-published “Jewel: An attempt at a Halal Romance:, the first Anglophone romance of its kind by a Bruneian. The novella traces out a burgeoning relationship between the newly religious Prince Danial and the hal-American, […]

“Reader, I mirrored him”: the recasting of romance tropes in Jane Eyre fanfiction

Dr Lucy Sheerman Session 7.3: 19th century legacies Abstract: Representatives of Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre have proliferated since its publication. Within three months a play had been staged and at least eight plays had bee performed by 1900. From 1910 onwards the story was also re-cast for film. Eight silent and fifteen feature film […]

Beloved Monstrosity: Romance and Romanticism in Frankenstein

Steven Gil (Queensland University of Technology) Session 7.2: 19th century legacies Abstract: Upon its bicentennial anniversary, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus (1818) remains vests with significance. Most are aware of a simplified version of her narrative where a man ‘playing God’ creates new life only to be ultimately destroyed by his work. However, […]

House, Home & Husband in historical romance fiction

Dr Sarah Ficke (Marymount University) Session 7.1: 19th century legacies Abstract: Home. For Elizabeth Bennet, as for many real middle- and upper-class women during the Regency and Victorian periods, “home” was a concept fraught with anxiety. Legal restrictions on women’s right to own property, entailed estates, and limited economic opportunities meant that marriage was the […]

One of the Guys? Eve Dallas as a masculine worker heronie in J.D. Robb’s ‘In Death’ series.

Jayashree Kamblé (La Guardia CC, City University of New York) Session 6.4 Power and Patriarchy Abstract: Harriet Bradley’s study of gender in work history documents how gender roles affect the practice and perception of labour. Her observations are crucial to understanding the labour of Eve Dallas, the murder cop in J.D. Robb’s long-running In Death […]

The Single Mother and the Law: Romance novels making room for female voices in patriarchal spaces

Publishes as Michelle Douglas, also a PhD Candidate (University of Newcastle, Australia) Session 6.3 Power and Patriarchy Abstract:  Single mothers are routinely subjected to scorn and censure from the media and political discourse, often dismiss as conniving welfare queens and a drain on society.  Research proves these images are fundamentally false.  However the biases these […]

Dangerous loves endangered: nationalism, violence and territoralization in US paramilitary romance fiction

Professor Nattie Golubov (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico) Session 6.2 Power and Patriarchy I’m going to put the whole abstract this time, as it helps explain a lot of my shorthand bullet points later in the post. Most of the abstract is behind the cut. Abstract: This paper will discuss the geopolitical imaginary and the […]

The Soft Power of Popular Romance

Heather Schell (George Washington University, USA) Session 6.1 Power and Patriarchy Abstract: Political scientist Joseph Nye introduced the term “soft power” as a way of describing how nations might win hearts and allies without the us of military force or economics.  Power, he says, is “a way to alter the behaviour of others to get […]