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The Journal of Popular Romance Studies is looking for essays, interviews, and pedagogical materials on love and religion in global popular culture, for a special issue guest-edited by Lynn S. Neal (Romancing God: Evangelical Women and Inspirational Fiction). How do film, fiction, popular music, and other media represent the complex relationships between love and religion? How do these representations compare across national, cultural, and theological divides, and what happens when they cross those boundaries? How have they changed over time? What can a sophisticated understanding of love in religious discourse—from whatever tradition—teach us about individual songs, films, novels, or other popular texts?

Topics of particular interest include:

• Theologies of love in popular song: Leonard Cohen, U2, Richard Thompson, Al Green, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Niyaz, Shye Ben-Tzur, etc.
• Sacred and secular love in popular culture: drawing boundaries, blurring distinctions
• Interfaith romance (Jewish / Christian, Hindu / Muslim, etc.) in popular culture
• Love, Religion, and Politics in popular culture
• Romance vs. Religion: warnings, advice literature, debates over idolatry, etc.
• Romantic love as a surrogate or secular religion
• Christian inspirational romance fiction, and its non-Christian equivalents: studies of individual novels, publishing lines, reader behavior, etc.
• Crossover texts and figures: Rumi, the Song of Songs, etc.
• God as lover and beloved in popular culture
• Sacred love stories in popular culture (Krishna / Radha, Majnun / Layla, Adam / Eve, etc.)
• One Love, or many? Rastafari, Wiccan, and other traditions of love in popular culture

Published by the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR), the peer-reviewed Journal of Popular Romance Studies is the first academic journal to focus exclusively on representations of romantic love across national and disciplinary boundaries. Our editorial board includes representatives from English, Comparative Literature, Ethnomusicology, History, Religious Studies, African American Studies, and other fields. JPRS is available without subscription at http://jprstudies.org.

Please submit scholarly papers of no more than 10,000 words by June 1, 2012, to An Goris, Managing Editor managing(dot)editor(at) jprstudies(dot)org. Longer manuscripts of particular interest will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Submissions should be Microsoft Word documents, with citations in MLA format.

The text came from Lynn S. Neal and JPRS. The images etc have been added by me. The YouTube video contains a song, “Who is the Loved One” by Sami Yusuf. The photo of Jewish Rhapsodies for Those In Love came from Flikr via The Contemporary Jewish Museum. The image of Kamadeva came from Wikimedia Commons, as did the photo of Sue McFarlane’s tombstone, which was taken by Alan Walker. It reads

HI. I’M SUE MCFARLANE (NEE LILLEY) BORN 26.8.1956 PASSED OVER 24.10.1995 THANK YOU FOR COMING HERE TODAY. MY SPIRIT IS WITH YOU AND I LOOK FORWARD TO MEETING UP AGAIN IN A WONDERFUL HEAVEN. I LOVE YOU ALL BE HAPPY AND MAY GOD BE WITH YOU. THERE ARE THREE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS; FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT IS LOVE. AMEN. TO MY FAMILY X X X

Teach Me Tonight

Here’s a very interesting call for papers from Hsu-Ming Teo, via PopCAANZ

I’m putting together an edited book on the theme of romantic love in popular culture. The aim of the book is to understand how Australians’ beliefs, ideals, and practices of romantic love have changed over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries — how we have written and spoken about being in love or falling out of love, and how these issues are related to dating, courtship, and long-term commitments such as cohabitation and marriage. This book asks: what kinds of popular cultural practices have facilitated or reflected ideas of romantic love to Australians?

Questions to be explored include (but are not limited to):

1. How has love been represented in:

• the media

• film

• television

• music

• popular literature

• graphic novels, comics, etc.

• What are the classic Australian love stories, and why?

2. How have dating and courtship changed over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries?

3. How have consumerism and advertising affected the idea and/or practice of romantic love?

4. How does popular culture facilitate the practice of romantic love?

• e.g. what kinds of ideas/beliefs/practices have developed around food and love?

• Is there a role for clothing/fashion in the practice or marketing of romantic love? etc.

5. Do developments in gender roles, multiculturalism, the sexualisation of popular culture, age, etc. affect ideas of romantic love?

The book will be an accessibly written trade book aimed at a non-specialist audience which I hope will be launched on Valentine’s Day 2013.

Deadlines are as follows:

• Abstract: 26 September 2011

• Final chapter (5-8000 words): 4 June 2012

Conferences: If people are interested and we can get enough papers together, I will organize panel sessions at:

• PopCAANZ conference 2012, Melbourne – dates tba

• PCA/ACA conference, Boston, 11-14 April 2012

• International Association for the Study of Popular Romance, 27-29 September 2011 [I think this may in fact refer to the 2012 IASPR conference]

If you are interested in submitting an abstract on any aspect of the popular culture of romantic love in Australia, can you please let me know so that I don’t go chasing other people for book chapters on that topic. Please email me as soon as possible at: hsuming.teo@mq.edu.au

With best wishes,

Dr Hsu-Ming Teo

The image came from Wikimedia Commons and was created by Andreyyshore.

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Out of Print: The Evolution of Twentieth-Century Writing

A one-day conference, funded by the Faculty of Humanities Graduate School Knowledge Exchange Grant and in association with CUE East, will be hosted by the School of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, on Friday 16th September 2011.

Rediscovery of neglected writing, the re-branding of second-hand books as desirable retro objects and an ever increasing plethora of film and television adaptations bring questions of the legacy and future of twentieth-century writing into ever-sharper focus. The conference aims to bring together postgraduates, academics and publishers to examine the wide variety of ways that writing comes to be ‘out of print’. The conference will explore all aspects of the theme to ask: Why are some writers neglected? How can we read the position and problem of writing that is no longer published? What is at stake during the movement from page to other mediums? With the dawn of the kindle, what about the materiality of books, journals, newspapers? Has the role of small imprints changed, and what are the implications of print on demand? What happens at the margins of the printed?

Call for Papers: We welcome papers that engage with any aspect of the theme ‘out of print’. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Neglected or forgotten authors who are either no longer published or who have been brought back into print.
- Questions of reputation, gender, language and translation that might affect printed status.
- Spaces between ‘high’ and ‘low’, academic and popular, short story and novel.
- How print responds to demand: the role of reader, publisher and media in reading trends and retro fashions.
- As block becomes laser: charting changes in what it means for something to be in print.
- The changing roles of small print runs, magazines and journal publication throughout the twentieth century.
- Notes in the margins: the place of libraries and archives in terms of access to writing that is out of print.
- From page to stage: out of print into film, television, theatre, radio.

You are invited to submit 300 word abstracts for papers of 20 minutes to info@outofprintconference.co.uk by Thursday 30 June 2011. More details here.

TWC (Transformative Works and Cultures) Special Issue CFP: Transnational Boys’ Love Fan Studies (March 2013)

Edited by Kazumi Nagaike and Katsuhiko Suganuma, Oita University

‘BL’ (Boys’ Love), a genre of male homosexual narratives (consisting of manga, novels, animations, games, films, and so forth) written by and for women, has recently been acknowledged, by Japanese and non-Japanese scholars alike, as a significant component of Japanese popular culture. The aesthetic and style of Japanese BL have also been assumed, deployed and transformed by female fans transnationally. The current thrust of transnational BL practices raises a number of important issues relating to socio/cultural constructs of BL localization and globalization.

Scholarly endeavors in relation to BL can be enriched by further research concerning the activities of transnational BL fans, fan communities, fandom, and the production of fan fiction. Most previous BL fan studies have remained circumscribed to Japan and North America. Therefore, in order to further develop transnational BL fan studies, we are seeking contributors who are engaged in the exploration of non-Japanese and non-North American contexts (e.g. Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, Africa, and others). Transnational BL fan studies may also be incorporated into the broader socio/political critical frameworks offered by studies in economics, gender/sexuality, race/class, and other areas.

We welcome submissions dealing with, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Case-studies and ethnographic examinations of BL fans, specifically examining fans’ sex/gender, age, occupation, class, race/ethnicity, et cetera.
• Local ethnographies relating to BL fans’ production, distribution, and use of these materials. Discussions concerning the ways in which broadly framed socio/political issues or forms of consciousness (e.g. gender/sexuality formations, authorities’ interference, censorship, and so forth) impact fans’ BL activities.
• Media and social responses to fans’ involvement in BL activities.
• Commercial aspects of BL and fans’ contribution to the development of BL economics.
• The integration of research on BL fans into a wider discussion of social theory, differing cultural discourses, and globalization.
• Discussions concerning the ways in which BL fans’ forms of production, distribution, and consumption might challenge traditional notions of Author, Reader, and Text.
• Theoretical overviews reflecting traditional/contemporary ideas of fandom, fans, fan communities, and fans’ means of communications, demonstrating how these ideas specifically relate to BL fans.
• Explorations of the ways in which BL participants are motivated to become involved in other fan-oriented activities (e.g. cosplay; female fans’ cross-dressing as male BL characters).

More information here and here.

Teach Me Tonight

Some time ago I read Lynne Pearce’s contribution to A Companion to Romance: From Classical to Contemporary, ed. Corinne Saunders, Blackwell, 2004. Pearce begins by stating that

In her original proposal for this Companion, Corinne Saunders observed that: “Romance exists in degenerate form in works of the Mills and Boon type” (my italics). As the author given the responsibility for dealing with this end of the romance spectrum, some manner of defense was clearly called for, and my initial response – “yes, but what is most degenerate is also most defining” – has stood up well to the way this chapter has developed. Like it or not, it is the template originating in these mass-produced romances that has become the twenty-first-century’s base-line definition of romance. (521)

Hardly the most ringing endorsement of the genre, it is perhaps on a par with Ann Barr Snitow’s conclusion that

In spite of all the audience manipulations inherent in the Harlequin formula, the connection between writer and reader is tonally seamless; Harlequins are respectful, tactful, friendly toward their audience. The letters that pour in to their publishers speak above all of involvement, warmth, human values. The world that can make Harlequin romances appear warm is indeed a cold, cold place. (262)

I was reminded of Pearce and Snitow’s backhanded compliments when, thanks to a tweet from RedRobinReader, I came across an article about a forthcoming issue of Granta

dedicated to reflections on gender, power and feminism, in which Lydia Davis, Rachel Cusk, Jeanette Winterson, AS Byatt, Helen Simpson and Téa Obreht, among others, write wide-ranging pieces on women’s places in the world, the place of feminism within storytelling and shortfalls of the Women’s Movement of the 1970s.

Nothing there about the romance genre, but I was nonetheless reminded of Lynne Pearce’s chapter, in which she had written that

Jeanette Winterson’s highly popular novels may easily be thought of under the heading of “popular romance” notwithstanding the fact that they are also classified as “literary,” “postmodern,” and – rather more controversially – “gay” or “queer.” What distinguishes them, and similar titles, from the “Mills and Boon” class is that small, but crucial, twist of “knowingness” with which the romantic/sexual adventures are described and analyzed. What is striking about a text like Powerbook, however, is that – in terms of its key “ingredients,” and the way in which they have been marketed – this product is not very far removed from romance in its more “degenerate” form.
Putting to one side, then, the postmodern knowingness and irony in which Winterson’s text is enfolded, a quick survey of what this text has in common with a classic Mills and Boon novel reveals why the depth of the structures/conventions linking them can also be used to explain the erosion of their generic boundaries, especially in terms of their readership. Apart from the fact that the core narrative tells the familiar story of a chance/fateful meeting between two lovers, a series of obstacles (husband/geographical separation), and reunion, what links this text with the common pleasures of popular romance are: its exotic locations [...]; its focus on the physical appearance of the heroine (in particular her “simple” but “expensive” clothing, 2000: 34); its sensual depiction of gourmet food [...]. (523-24)

Apparently in the forthcoming issue of Granta Winterson, “reflecting on the love affair between Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas, bemoans the loss of romance in our post-feminist age” and she states that

Women still have little power in the decision-making processes of government and industry. And the culture is punishing women as never before. We have to be smart, pretty, sexy, good in the kitchen, good at the office, good with the kids. Good in bed. Good at handling men. It is impossible. Older women are written off and teenagers feel they have to be sexually available all of the time. Hence the line in my story: Fucking is the new frigid. There is so little in the culture that helps us to love well, either ourselves or our partners. Love is a casualty of the upgrade culture but women just don’t have time anymore to be in charge of love and that is everybody’s loss.

I suppose it could be argued, though, that in the most “degenerate” form of romance women are, largely, “in charge of love.” Whether that means the romance genre should be celebrated because it “helps us to love well,” or taken as an indication that the world is a “cold, cold place,” I leave it to each reader to decide. As for me, I’m wondering what light Smart Bitch Sarah’s forthcoming Everything I Know about Love I Learned from Romance Novels will shed on the question.

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• Akbar, Arifa. “Is feminism relevant to 21st-century fiction?” The Independent, Friday, 13 May 2011.
• Pearce, Lynne. “Popular Romance and its Readers.” A Companion to Romance: From Classical to Contemporary. Ed. Corinne Saunders. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004. 521-538.
• Snitow, Ann Barr. “Mass Market Romance: Pornography for Women is Different.” Radical History Review 20 (1979): 141-61. Rpt. in Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality. Ed. Ann Snitow, Christine Stansell and Sharon Thompson. New York: Monthly Review, 1983. 245-263.

The image, which is available for use under a Creative Commons license, was adapted by Phil Bradley. He altered the text from a World War 1 poster in order to support public libraries.

Teach Me Tonight

Over the last hundred and fifty years the representation of the vampire has shifted from merciless monster of the evil dead, through suave continental lover, to troubled boyfriend from a dysfunctional family. What makes vampires so sexy? Is it because they want something other than sex? Has the vampire become the representation of a male who really understands women and will listen to what they want?

Literature of Horror, Fantasy & Sci-Fi

Jessica at Read React Review is posing the question “What Does The Romance Genre Say About the Good Life?” She lists the following as aspects of “the view of the good life found in the romance genre”:

• “romantic love”
• “material welfare”
• “physical and mental health”
• “physical beauty”
• “affiliation”
• “autonomy”
• “integrity”
• “moral virtue”

It’s a thought-provoking list and one which will probably have people searching their minds for exceptions (whose very scarcity may end up proving Jessica’s point). She also notes a few things which aren’t on the list, including “spirituality.” Catherine Roach, however, in the Journal of Popular Romance Studies, suggests that the genre’s view of love shares a template with “the Christian religious tradition”:

The love of a good woman (or man, or God, or Son of God) heals all wounds, forgives all sins stretching back to the stain of original sin, resurrects a dead man, saves a lost soul, integrates false persona and true self, can make a real man—or real woman—out of you. The belief in the healing power of love is the central trope of erotic faith, western Christian culture, and romance novels alike. Whether the romance narrative borrows this belief from the Christian religious tradition or whether the latter takes this perennial belief and incorporates it as central to its theology is a chicken-and-egg question that need not concern us here. Either way, love, in various forms of agape, phile, and eros, is the central emotional dynamic in the life quest for meaning, happiness, and—the point on which I want to focus—the crucial category of wholeness or healing.

When the reader leaves the romance protagonists at the end of the novel, they have generally achieved what Jessica calls the “good life” or, in the terminology of Roach’s argument,

an eschaton of love, commitment, completion, fulfillment, happiness, generational continuity, maturity, and hope. The happily-ever-after ending functions as a foundational psychological component of human wish-fulfillment: we yearn for this ideal paradise where we are loved, where the quest for wholeness is granted, where wounds are made right, where pleasure and security reign guaranteed.

Both Jessica and Roach’s conclusions are based on generalisations, but it seems to me that those generalisations are nonetheless relatively accurate descriptions of a high proportion of the genre. If any of those conclusions seem at all troubling, perhaps the reasons why can be discussed at Read React Review and JPRS.

Teach Me Tonight