'reine ou esclave...': conflicting images of women in the contemporary 'romantic novel' in france
Abstract (summary)
The romantic novel in France has enjoyed enormous success in the last seven years. Its readership constitutes the largest and most homogenous group of readers in terms of sex and social class. The purpose of this thesis is to shed some light on the causes of the popularity of these novels.
A singular "blend of the material and the sentimental, romantic novels are an affective commodity. Competition dictates that the sellers constantly monitor and modify their books to suit the exact requirements of the buyers. As such, romantic novels reflect real demands from the readers.
The genre has attracted comment and some analysis from both the right, its defenders, and critics, usually feminists. Paradoxically, both critical strategies have tended to posit the reader as passive victim. Both share a common assumption of the univocity of the text and both see the genre as playing a functional role in the insertion of the female reader in the process of social reproduction.
But can the meaning and the value of the text to the reader be reduced to its predetermined ideological messages? And does the reading necessarily force the reader to passive consumption of its messages?
Our study will first describe the conditions of production of the novels and establish a tentative portrait of the readership in France. We will then examine the packaging of the books .and the constitutive elements of the narrative in order to discover what the values are, how these are posited and worked by the romantic novel and whether they constitute and propagate a coherent ideology.
By means of a textual analysis we hope to reveal why the romantic novel appeals and its possible social effect, whether it forecloses the options available to the reader or if it also expresses consciousness of oppression, elements of protest and opens avenues of resistance.