Sunday 24 February 2008

Romance

If anyone is ever in doubt about the Romance genre and what it is, there is a huge discussion going on here The basic question of whether it is the correct term for the genre that hides beneath it brought out some interesting responses.

So, what is Romance?
Out of curiosity, I checked my dictionary and found some surprises:
An atmosphere or tendency characterised by a sense of remoteness from or an idealisation of everyday life;
Sense of wonder or mystery surrounding the mutual attraction in a love affair;
A literary genre with romantic love/highly imaginative or unrealistic episodes forming the central theme;
A medieval tale of some hero of chivalry;
An exaggeration or picturesque falsehood;
The languages descended from Latin, regarded collectively;

I think that about covers it!

A tighter view might cover category romance: the meet between h/H;
their mutual attraction; the barrier that keeps them apart; how they overcome the barrier; how the reach the Happy Ever After ending.

That's it in a nutshell, I think. The variety of 'em depends how much adventure, sex, humour you want to put into the journey to HEA. Some authors have a great sense of humour that comes through in their writing . Louise Allen does it for me. Others are rather more serious, like
Juliet Landon. Others forget reality altogether and go for pure adventure.

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