Why are romance novels so popular among women?

Mgr. Jolana Tomková

Bakalářská práce

Abstract:

Resume In my final bachelor work I tried to find the answer on the question: Why romance novels are so popular among women? I did not concentrate on the quality of romance from scholars point of view but I prefer readers opinions. As an example of a romance novel I chose Danielle Steels novel The Ring. As for Danielle Steel I chose her because she is one of the most popular contemporary American writers of romance fiction. Her books are popular all around the world and many of them were even models for movies. She writes not only about present but she chooses various topics from the past. The range of her topics is wide. From her works I selected her novel from WW II. The romance novel The Ring is interesting from two aspects. One can know something about history but it was not the main reason of my choice. The main reason was that the novel is a typical example of a romance genre. It included all elements what the good romance must have: love, pretty heroines, handsome hero, complications in relationship between hero and heroine, hostility, misunderstanding, forgiveness and of course a happy ending. Those are elements that women like to read about. Women read mainly for relax. The main reason for reading romance novels is escape from daily routine. According to A.Radways investigation among women readers, women prefer reading romance novels especially because they can escape from daily routine and they can be on their own. They can immerse to the world of fantasy and forget of all troubles and relax. The reasons described above make romance novels popular. It is true that romance novels have the same shape of the plot that is only set in different times but I think that sometime is good to switch off and relax.

Keywords

Danielle Steel, The Ring, popularity, romance, novel, Radway, Miles, relax, hero, love, WW II, Nazi, USA, Germany, Jew

Jazyk práce: angličtina

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 13. 6. 2006

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Obhajoba proběhla 13. 6. 2006
• Vedoucí: Dr. Rita Chalmers Collins

Masarykova univerzita

Pedagogická fakulta

Bakalářský studijní program / obor:
Učitelství pro základní školy / Učitelství cizích jazyků pro základní školy - angličtina