Beschreibung
This study explores the narrative and ideological
development which unfolds in the contemporary popular
romance novels of the American romance writers Jayne Ann
Krentz and Barbara Delinsky over a period of time of
twenty-five years. As in the first ten years of their
writing careers, the chosen authors were writers for the
restrictive uniformity of the romance genre predominantly
published by Harlequin Enterprises, the study addresses the
industry of romance writing that targets women as an
audience and uses women writers for the task. To verify that
this section of literature, represented partly in both
authors‘ novels, mirrors specific contemporary American
concerns and beliefs, transports social and ethical values
in the narratives, and adapts to changes of taste and values
in the American society, giving the Zeitgeist its due in
order to stay marketable, is one main objective of this
study.
The study contains an in-depth analysis of three of each
authors‘ novels, novels of 1982, 1992, and 2007.
Moreover, the author proposes the hypothesis, that, by
reading romance novels, a reader reenacts the mythic rite of
the old oriental myth of the ‚Sacred Marriage‘.
