060. Romance Research with Jayashree Kamble

Jayashree Kamble, a romance scholar and Vice President of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance, joins me to discuss the various ways romance can be studied. She gives a brief overview of the history of the romance genre and pop culture research, why she doesn't encounter the hierarchy of taste when teaching romance, and explains who romance scholarship is for.

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Show Notes:

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Guest: Jayashree Kamble

Twitter | Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction

Notes:

• Making Meaning in Popular Romance Fiction, an Epistemology by Jayashree Kamble

• The Romance Fiction of Mills and Boon - 1909 to 1990 by Jay Dixon

  • Don't worry, my copy is in the mail so go ahead and order it

• Paratext definition: "French literary theorist Gérard Genette's term for the framing devices authors and publishers use to contextualize works and generate interest (e.g. blurbs, subtitles, celebrity endorsements, and so forth). As Genette points out in Seuils (1987) translated as Paratexts. Thresholds of Interpretation (1997), although not officially part of the text, the paratext can have a significant influence over the way a text is received."

• Two foundational romance scholarship texts:

  • A Natural History of the Romance Novel by Pamela Regis

    • Issue 3.2 of JPRS had roundtable discussions of A Natural History of the Romance Novel. Find them here.

  • Reading the Romance by Janice Radway

    • Issue 4.2 of JPRS had roundtable discussions on Janice Radway 30 years after the publication of Reading the Romance. Find them here.

• Frankfurt School

• IASPR Digital Showcase 2020 Conference: View every presentation here! Several of these discussions that happened just before Jayashree and I spoke are referenced in the episode.

• Jen Lois and Joanna Gregson

  • They were on Smart Podcast, Trashy Books twice - this link is the latter and links to the first

  • Their research: Sneers and Leers: Romance Writers and Gendered Sexual Stigma

• "A very good romance book club in New York. It's run by Madeline Caldwell at Word Bookstore."