Download PDFIt was in Brussels, Belgium, in 2010, that I first ‘discovered’ the field of popular romance studies. Attending the second (although my first) conference of the International Society for the Study of Popular Romance, I was thrilled and inspired to meet a group of people who were also invested in exploring the world of romantic fiction. That August, I vowed to engage with and support, in any way I could, scholars and scholarship on popular romance. It is with great pride that, fifteen years later and following stints as Book Review editor and Managing Editor, I am taking over from Eric Selinger as Executive Editor for JPRS. I can only hope to be able to continue Eric’s legacy and lead the journal through its future new directions.
We published five research articles in Volume 14. Two articles offer new perspectives on authors and texts; Noam Raveh proposes a psychoanalytic reading of Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels (1995), and Jeania Ree V. Moore argues for a reading of the works of Beverly Jenkins as expanding the African American religious tradition of chronicling. Two further articles consider the contemporary literary moment—Orsolya Barta and Ann Steiner explore the representation of pregnancy, contraception and abortion in romance novels published between 2016 and 2022, and Emily Fuller examines love and heteropessimism in the works of contemporary Swedish author, Fredrik Backman. Joseph Crawford takes a similarly non-Anglophone approach in his analysis of Japanese yuri manga, placing this romance manga in relation to wider lesbian romance traditions.
Volume 14 also contains a special issue on Young Adult (YA) series romance, (Un)defined YA / Series / Romance. YA romance is a hugely significant subgenre of popular romance (both fiction and film/TV), and JPRS has published research on queer YA, Cold War teen romance, the feminist potential of YA, as well as several articles on perhaps the quintessential YA romance, Twilight. This special issue comprises six new articles on YA series romance as well as a definitional introduction by the issue’s guest editor, Amanda K. Allen. Diverse in both content and approach, the articles represent the expansive history and scope of scholarship on young adult fiction, serialisation and popular romance. Melanie Ramdarshan Bold and Nora Slonimsky discuss interviews with ghostwriters of the Sweet Valley franchise, Jessica Caravaggio considers fan reception of Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series, Christian M. Hines argues for the reclamatory disruptiveness of Black YA romance by Elise Bryant, and Tharini Viswanath and Nithya Sivashankar turn to visual media and the intersection of cultural traditions in Indian and Indian-American Netflix YA romance. The final two articles both focus on YA series ‘icon’ Nancy Drew, albeit from different perspectives. Andrea Braithwaite takes a retrospective look at Nancy Drew books published in the 1980s and 1990s, considering their exposition of postfeminism. Amber Moore and Kaye Hare’s approach is more contemporary, evaluating erotic Nancy Drew fanfiction, offering new ways to think about both Nancy Drew and fanfiction itself.
We published four Notes and Queries in Volume 14, offering commentary, reflection or opinion on various aspects of love and romance scholarship. Betty Kaklamanidou reflects on the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally (1989), outlining the film’s personal impact on her, as well as arguing for its initiation of several discourses of romantic love. Three Notes and Queries reflect the global nature of popular romance studies. Javaria Farooqui provides a reflection on reading, studying and researching romance, positioning her own research as a moment of change for romance reading and scholarship in Pakistan. Elin Abrahamsson’s piece focuses on her teaching of popular romance as part of a feminist cultural studies course in Sweden, and Rosalind Haslett and Maria Butler write about Irish romantic fiction writer Marian Keyes and their own work in relation to her, arguing for an Irish-focused consideration of Keyes. If you are interested in proposing a short piece for our Notes and Queries section, please write to the Notes and Queries editor at notesandqueries@jprstudies.org.
Finally, Volume 14 contains six book reviews of scholarship on or related to love and romance in popular culture. Three reviews complement the YA series romance special issue, on YA Gothic Fiction, Queer identity in YA literature and culture, and Chicana YA literature. Three further reviews consider published work on romance readership in Pakistan, the heroine of popular romance and, an essential ingredient in many romance novels, the orgasm. If you have a book that you think would be of interest to romance scholarship and you would like JPRS to consider reviewing it, please contact the Book Review editor at bookreviews@jprstudies.org.
Volume 14 of the journal is a manifestation of the vibrancy, rigour, and globality of current research in love and romance. I look forward to a continuation in Volume 15.