Feminism in Romance: How the romance genre has(n't) changed since the 1950s

Abstract

I denne oppgaven viser jeg hvordan feminisme har påvirket kjærlighetsromaner gjennom årene ved å diskutere bøker fra 1950-tallet, 1970-tallet, og 1990-tallet. Da kjærlighetsromaner er hovedsaklig skrevet av kvinner, om kvinner og for kvinner, forventet jeg å se en tydelig innflytelse fra feminisme. Det er mindre forskjeller mellom de tre historiske kjærlighetsromanene, Georgette Heyer’s Sylvester, Barbara Cartland’s The Wicked Marquis and Julia Quinn’s The Duke and I. Blant kjærlighetsromanene fra samtiden, Perry Lindsay’s No Nice Girl, Charlotte Lamb’s Temptation og Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Kiss and Angel, fant jeg ingen tydelig feministisk trend, men heller at den eldste romanen var den mest utfordrende, uavhengig av tid. De nyere romanene hadde et tydeligere fokus på sex, men deres karakterer og tema var til tids veldig tradisjonelle. Jeg har funnet at den feministiske bevegelsen i sin helhet ikke har hatt en tydelig påvirkning på kjærlighetsromaner gjennom årene.

In this paper, I show how feminism has impacted the romance genre over time by discussing romance novels published in the 50s, 70s, and 90s. As romance novels are mainly written by women, about women, and for women, I expected to see a clear influence from feminism. When looking at the Regency romances, Georgette Heyer’s Sylvester, Barbara Cartland’s The Wicked Marquis and Julia Quinn’s The Duke and I, I found little change between the decades. This was expected as the genre aims to romanticise a specific time period. More surprisingly, I found that contemporary romance novels such as Perry Lindsay’s No Nice Girl, Charlotte Lamb’s Temptation, and Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Kiss and Angel, did not show clear signs of a feminist influence progressing over time. In fact, the oldest novel was the most challenging toward patriarchal ideals. The newer novels had a heavier focus on sex, but the characters and themes were often based on traditional gender norms. As a whole, I have not found that the feminist movement has clearly impacted the romance genre.