[Laura Vivanco]

This isn't exactly about the romance genre, I don't think, but since IASPR's remit is about popular romance more widely I thought some people might be interested in Robin Virginia Smiles's dissertation on "Romance, Race and Resistance in Best-Selling African American Narrative."

The abstract is available here but I'll give an excerpt from it:

Quote

This dissertation critically examines popular romantic fiction by African American writers and argues for its inclusion in the canons and curricula of African American literary studies. While novels that privilege themes of love and romance and that appeal primarily to a mass-market audience have tended to be cast as antithetical to matters of racial uplift and social protest, my work reverses this bias, establishing such texts as central to these concerns. [...] I identify the "racial project" undertaken in the popular romantic fiction of three best-selling African American writers in the latter-half of the twentieth century-- Frank Yerby, Toni Morrison, and Terry McMillan.

Proquest gives the following identifying details for the dissertation: Smiles, Robin Virginia, Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park, 2009, 189 pages; AAT 3359426

[Jennifer Crowley]

Wow,

Thanks for letting us know about this. I'll have to take a look at it.

[Eric Selinger]

Laura Vivanco, on 08 August 2009 - 08:36 AM, said:

This isn't exactly about the romance genre, I don't think, but since IASPR's remit is about popular romance more widely I thought some people might be interested in Robin Virginia Smiles's dissertation on "Romance, Race and Resistance in Best-Selling African American Narrative."

Catching up on IASPR (and everything else) now that my poetry seminar and the Brisbane trip are through. This looks fascinating, Laura, and I'll certainly contact the author. Thanks!

[Laura Vivanco]

Eric Selinger, on 07 September 2009 - 07:45 PM, said:

Catching up on IASPR (and everything else) now that my poetry seminar and the Brisbane trip are through.

Good to have you "back," so to speak. But when did you metamorphose into a muppet? The last time I looked you were a lute (or similar stringed instrument).

[Eric Selinger]

Laura Vivanco, on 07 September 2009 - 01:54 PM, said:

Good to have you "back," so to speak. But when did you metamorphose into a muppet? The last time I looked you were a lute (or similar stringed instrument).

As we looked through the pictures from our Brisbane trip, my son decided that my long hair and receding hairline conspired to make me look like Rowlf the Dog. My curls = his ears, or so the claim runs. New look for the new school year!