We're still here a year later! In honor of our first birthday we're diving backwards into time to look at the evolution of the romance genre, and romantic literature, throughout the ages. Spoiler alert...it goes back further than the 1970s. WAYYYYYY further. Break out your snacks and a notebook, it's time to go to school. Now, this is not an official history; ask a number of different literary historians and they will all have different answers. This is just Jackie and Jen's observational opinion as professional readers. Other historians observations/theories are linked down below!
Content Warning: discussion of rape and rape culture in earlier romance novels, language use,
The etymology of a "romance":
Romance novel-first attested to as a description for a novel in 1964- focused on the development of a romantic relationship; DERIVED FROM:
Romance literature-extended in the 17th century to refer to love stories; DERIVED FROM:
Romaunce - ca. 1300CE meaning "a story, written or recited, of the adventures of a knight, hero, etc., often one designed principally for entertainment." These medieval vernacular tales usually told chivalric adventures full of marvelous incidents and heroic deeds. In reference to literary works, often in Middle English meaning ones written in French but also applied to native compositions; DERIVED FROM:
Romanz - Old French, originally an adverb, "in the vernacular language;" DERIVED FROM:
Romanice Scribere - Vulgar Latin meaning "to write in a Romance language" (one developed from Latin instead of Frankish); DERIVED FROM:
Romanicus - Latin meaning "of or in the Roman style;" DERIVED FROM
Romanus - Latin meaning "Roman
Terms:
HEA - Happily Ever After
HFN - Happily ever after for now
Oral Tradition -
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. The transmission is through speech or song and may include folktales, ballads, chants, prose or verses.
Chivalric Tales
A type of prose or verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Chivalric romances celebrate an idealized code of civilized behavior that combines loyalty, honor, and courtly love.
Gutenberg Printing Press
Reformation
Renaissance
English Renaissance
Romanticism
An attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography in Western civilization over a period from the late 18th to the mid-19th century.
Gothic Literature
European Romantic pseudomedieval fiction having a prevailing atmosphere of mystery and terror.
Regency
For more information on the regency period, see Raging Romantics episode 13
Age of Revolutions
Dime Store Novel
Serials
Serials are print or non-print publications issued in parts, usually bearing issue numbers and/or dates. A serial is expected to continue indefinitely. Serials include magazines, newspapers, annuals (such as reports, yearbooks, and directories), journals, memoirs, proceedings, transactions of societies, and monographic series.
Penny Dreadful
Mills & Boon
Harlequin
Bodice Ripper
A historical romance novel with a very specific type of cover- usually depicting the heroine swooning in the hero's arms, and her dress/bodice has been ripped.
BDSM
Short for Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadochism and Masochism. For more info on this see Raging Romantics episode 15
Stories/Books/Legends we mention:
Pamela
Tristan and Iseult
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Romeo and Juliet
Midsummer Night's Dream
Pride and Prejudice
Hunchback of Notre Dame
Frankenstein
Wuthering Heights
Les Miserables
Flame and the Flower
Fifty Shades of Grey
Authors:
Emily and Charlotte Bronte
Victor Hugo
Tessa Dare
Nora Roberts
Danielle Steel
Sandra Brown
Beverly Jenkins
Karen Marie Moning
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Christine Feehan
Articles we read:
"James Patterson: Is the world's bestselling author the main writer?" (O'Sullivan, 2017)
"Evolution of the Romance Novel" (Harber, 2013)
"A Brief History of the Romance Novel" (Pagan, 2019)
The myth of Tristan and Iseult (britannica.com)
The History of Publishing (britannica.com)
"American Dime Novels 1860-1915" (Pope, n.d.)
"Why We Still Call Them Bodice Rippers" (Higgs, 2017)