Happily Ever After: The Romance Story in Popular Culture

240 Pages·2016·8.14 MB·English

by  Catherine M. Roach

H a p p i l y
ver
E
f t e r
A
The Romance Story in Popular Culture
CATHERINE M. ROACH
H a p p i l y
ver
E
f t e r
A
The Romance Story in Popular Culture
CATHERINE M. ROACH
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Bloomington & Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
“i carry your heart with me(i carry it in”. Copyright 1952, © 1980, 1991
by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust,
from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904–1962 by E. E. Cummings,
edited by George J. Firmage.
Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
© 2016 by Catherine M. Roach
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording,
or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution
on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Roach, Catherine M., author.
Title: Happily ever after : the romance story in popular culture / Catherine M. Roach.
Description: Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2016. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015033975 | ISBN 9780253020444 (cloth :
alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253020529 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Love stories, American—History and criticism. | Love stories,
English—History and criticism. | Women in literature. | Love in literature.
| Popular literature—United States. | Popular literature—Great Britain.
Classification: LCC PS374.L6 R58 2016 | DDC 813/.08509—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015033975
1 2 3 4 5 21 20 19 18 17 16
To Theo
Such is my lover and such my friend
This page intentionally left blank
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
e. e. cummings
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Prologue: Journey into Romancelandia 1
1 Find Your One True Love: Book Lovers and the Romance Story 3
2 Going Native: When the Academic Is (Also) the Fan 28
3 Notes from the Imagination: Reading Romance Writing:
Wherein Catherine Roach and Catherine LaRoche,
in Feisty Dialogue, Comment upon LaRoche’s Fiction 48
4
Sex: Good Girls Do, or, Romance Fiction as
Sex-Positive Feminist Mommy Porn 78
5 Notes from the Field: Romance Writers of America 104
6 Love: Bondage and the Conundrum of Erotic Love 119
7 Notes from the Writing: “Between the Sheets” and
Other Moments toward Romance Novelist 142
8 Happily Ever After: The Testament of Erotic Faith 165
Epilogue: Lessons from Romancing the Academic 189
Notes 197
Bibliography 207
Index 213