Student Profiles: Sally Boman
I’m
interested in historical mass-marketed romantic fiction, which is the academic
term I use when I don’t want to admit I’m studying
trashy romance novels. These books aren’t generally accepted as
exemplary literature, but, as cultural artifacts, they reveal a lot about Western
(particularly American) norms, desires, and expectations. Pulp romances
rack up massive sales in the U.S. and England, and the books occupy a distinctive
role in the lives of millions of predominantly female readers. Because
the genre is essentially market-driven, romance novels are simultaneously products
and sculptors of the contemporary female psyche. I’m trying to
investigate the ways in which these novels manifest and influence women’s
desires.