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Romance novel conference in Princeton
Friday, March 27th, 2009By Paul Biba
I’ve never understood the disdain to which the romance novel is treated. It seems to me that this is nothing but pure sexism. After all, the James Bond series of books is well regarded and even spawns movies and the Bond gendre is simply the male version of romance books. But Bond is literature of course! Well there’s going to be a conference on these issues soon in Princeton on April 23-24. Thank to Dear Author for the link.
This two-day symposium will be the first national conference to focus on the multiple ways that romance novels—long the most maligned of literary texts—can provide rich critical insight for the study of American culture, politics, and society. This explicitly contextual, interdisciplinary, and American focus represents a rich new direction for the field of romance fiction studies.
I live about 45 minutes from Princeton and if I can arrange my work schedule I may go down there and learn something. The current schedule is posted after the break.
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'The book’s women...radiate that screwball-comedy pizzazz a la Roz Russell’s Hildy Johnson in the film His Girl Friday.'
