Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Journal 6 for C&C - Romantic Tech

Sorry I didn't do Journal 5. :(

My tech project is looking to be an extension of some of my research for my undergraduate thesis. So far, I want to look at what the romance novel actually is as compared to what popular culture defines it as and why it is not accepted in more academic circles for the work that goes into making it a piece of fiction. I know that a lot of critics call Romance novels ‘porn in words’ and that it is really just ‘sappy, annoying crap’ but there is a lot more that goes into a novel of the genre than just two characters having sex or confessing their love for one another. Historical novels must be accurate, or have a really good reason why something is portrayed in a not historically accurate way (which is most often frowned upon.) This topic is important to English literature because it is a large field of writers (one which I want to join) that aren’t getting their (although mostly, but not always her) proper credit for all the work that goes into a novel simply because it isn’t part of the ‘dead white guy’ canon. Romantic literature includes drama and poetry too, yet we accept William Blake and Shakespeare. Shakespeare wrote about emotions and romance. However, these were male writers, almost in the same way that Richards is accepted as canonical for his ‘romance’ Pamela, because he was Victorian and male. Romance novels are usually very good prose, written in a way that attracts a reader’s attention with not only what they are saying, but the format and style they say it in. I intend to add links to some of the sites I’ve looked at with information on selling statistics for romance novels and the most popular types of novels. There is a set formula followed by these authors without this formula being enforced or even stated. My thesis will look at this formula and my tech project will highlight some of the basis points and plot devices in romance and briefly explain what they are. Hopefully this will help me to more clearly define my thesis proposal and my thesis itself.

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