Yet More on Female Characters in Fantasy – Rhiannon Thomas responds to Robin Hobb’s Facebook post on female characters in fantasy. Hobbs argues, among other things, that “I do not feel that gender defines a person any more than height does. Or shoe size. It’s one facet of a character. One. And I personally believe it is unlikely to be the most important thing about you.” A lot of Thomas’s responses will be familiar to you if you’ve participated in any number of these discussions around race, gender, and sexual orientation in genre fiction, but hers is still a very cogent and thoughtful commentary on why it’s important not to downplay these characteristics when designing characters.
And yes, fiction is about stepping into other people’s shoes, but right now those shoes are almost exclusively the shoes of white men. Why are women and minorities expected to suck it up and always take the leap of putting themselves into the mind of someone of a different race or gender, while white male readers see themselves reflected in book after book? Surely, if fiction is about stepping into other people’s shoes, that’s an argument for more diversity, not for maintaining the fantasy status quo. Female readers should have the same opportunities as male readers — not to completely dominate a story to the point of ridiculousness, but to see their gender exist, to be important, to be protagonists and antagonists and helpers and random customers in inns. And male readers should be able to step into their shoes and see female characters in those roles. –Feminist Fiction
Putting My Doctorate to Good Use – Author and dissertater on Romance heroines, Sandra Antonelli, has created a new space on her website, which she calls The Mature Content Stockpile, where she hopes to collect references, links, films, books, etc. on women as they’re being represented and representing themselves in media. This could be a very interesting project, especially in regard to how women over 40 are represented in a genre that has a lot of readers and authors who fit that age description.
While I LOVE smartass, I don’t like inequality, I don’t like stereotypes or preconceived notions about others. So, I figured it was time, what with being a defender and all, that I take up my shield and wield the awesome power that is my PhD in romance fiction. Yes, wielding my ongoing scholarly interest is all because of my name, and you know, my research was titled PhD’s title Cougars, Grannies, Evil Stepmothers, and Menopausal Hot flashers Roles, Representations of Age and the Non-traditional Romance Heroine, which is all about the woman over 40 and her place in society, and her portrayal as a whole, real person in romance fiction, rather than as a secondary character or stereotype of what, or how a ‘mature-aged woman’ or ‘woman of a certain age’ is ‘supposed’ to be. With me it’s all about diversity and equality, kids. –Sandra Antonelli
Why study romance as literature? – A new blog by Anne Bornschein that looks at Romance as an object of literary study. Hallelujah, I say! This is only her first post, but she lays out some pretty interesting topics, so I hope she keeps going and adds more content to the existing group of more “scholarly” Romance blogs.
- How might scholars fruitfully pair the study of popular romance with other areas such as race and gender studies, sexuality studies, history/historical reception, disability studies, post/colonial studies, religious studies, anthropology, sociology, and comparative literature?
- What are the limits of a hero/heroine? Are there any attributes or actions that are wholly incompatible with romance protagonist status, and how have responses to this question changed over the past thirty years?
- How are both the series-format and trends in e-publishing destabilizing our traditional understanding of what a novel is?
- Across various subgenres, how are systems of power and authority represented, upheld, critiqued, or subverted?
- How does language function differently in romance as compared to other literary genres? What do close readings reveal?
- How does the genre reflect changing attitudes toward alterity, and in particular toward sexual difference? Based on today’s texual production, who belongs in romance, and to whom does it belong? –Penetrating Analysis
Haruki Murakami adds online agony uncle to his CV – So get your questions ready, everyone, because in a week or so, Haruki Murakami is going to be hosting a website on which he will be providing “life advice.” This is not Murakami’s first foray into online engagement with his fan base, although it seems to be the least connected to a specific book (unless this experiment will be the basis of a new book), and apparently the advice will be published over the course of two months. Murakami indicated to his publisher that he wanted to “connect with his readers.” Although I won’t be submitting any questions, I’m kind of excited to see how this goes.
From January 15 until the end of the month, the famously reclusive author will offer life advice to fans who send questions to Murakami-san no Tokoro, or Mr Murakami’s Place.
No URL has been listed as yet, but the writer’s publishers, Shinchosha, say that he will accept questions on any subject. Fittingly for an author whose work is published in nearly 50 languages, questions will be invited in more than Japanese. –The Telegraph