The appeal of the mass-market romance

This thesis examines the possible reasons for the appeal of mass-market romance novels. A romance novel is defined as one in which the developing non-platonic relationship between the male and female protagonists provides the main incentive for the plot. A romance reader, while recognising that romance is a mass medium which contains variances in every individual text, can interpret the intense codes of romance writing.;Ideological arguments regarding romances are inconclusive, based as they are on a priori assumptions regarding the real world. Opponents of the genre have consistently found the characters of the protagonists, and the literary quality of a few specific texts problematic. In fact, romances must be read en masse to allow the reader to become conversant with, and sensitive to, the codes of romance narrative.;The relationship of the romance reader to the text is complex and variable. Romances rely heavily on the diegetic mode, with such features as the repetition of key near-synonyms, and portrayal of conventional details, often those emphasising the difference between the genders, helping to clarify the reader's horizon of expectations. The protagonists represent contrasting elements which must combine; while reading, the reader is free to identify with whichever side of the dialectic carries the impetus of the narrative.;While the plot functions can be combined and presented in a variety of guises, the tensions generated in the text remain remarkably constant. Having been lured into a voyeuristic, androgynous mode of reading, all the tensions are resolved, and both text and reader participate in the happy ending. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).