An Exploration Of Women's Class-Based Paths To Self-Actualization Represented In Lisa Kleypas' Travis Family Series

Thanks to the emergence of on-line literature,romance novels are rendered more accessible to the general public than ever before in the United States.Actually,the enormous popularity ofc"scorned literature" has arrested much scholarly attention since 1980s.After teasing out the existing scholarship,this thesis finds quite a few scholars in the 20th and 21st century hold the view that romance novels,despite their evolving nature,are formulaic fantasies where women's self-actualization utterly lies in their ultimate union with men.However,taking New York Times' best-selling author Lisa Kleypas' Travis Family Series as its sample of study,this thesis asserts that women in American contemporary romance novels have class-based definitions of self-actualization and in turn actively take class-based approaches to attaining it instead of waiting passively for their prince charming to give them a happy denouement.Absorbing the dictionary meaning and the connotations extracted from the existing romance scholarship,this thesis expands the scope of women's self-actualization in romance novels to include personal pursuits,gender relations and family ties and sets out specific criteria for self-actualization in each dimension.Moreover,drawing upon Gilbert-Khal model,this thesis classifies the four heroines in the novels selected into top class,intermediate class and bottom class.Therefore,this thesis will explore how women from different class backgrounds portrayed in contemporary romances define and attain their self-actualization.The research findings are as follows:In terms of self-actualization in personal pursuits,the top-class woman prioritizes self-determination;the intermediate-class women prioritize occupational success;and the bottom-class woman prioritizes economic independence.As for self-actualization in gender relations,the top-class woman pursues gender equality;the intermediate-class women pursue passion;and the bottom-class woman pursues sexual satisfaction.With regard to family ties,the top-class woman demands both material support and emotional support;the intermediate-class women demand emotional comfort;and the bottom-class woman derives self-fulfillment from altruism.Additionally,given the wherewithal in hand,women from different class backgrounds attain their self-defined self-actualization through varied channels.On the basis of these findings,this thesis further discusses that women's self-actualizing priorities are not calcified by their class backgrounds,instead,they make the most of the resources in hand to fulfil their most pressing self-actualizing pursuit at every stage of their life.Furthermore,this thesis relates romances to America's social reality,discussing romances' representation of women's situations and misrepresentation of assortative mating.All in all,apart from contributing a bit to the romance scholarship by approaching romance novels from the perspective of class,this research also serves to reveal that there are masqueraded nutritional values in these so called "trashy love stories".