Well, there's 'romance'--or rather Romance. The term became a marketing label specifically to denote books whose main thrust was an emotional relationship that may or may not include sex, ending with partnership. Of course the rest of the definition rigidly adhereed to het, marriage, and for many years the heroine had to be a virgin until she got the ring on her finger. (This marked her off from the Other Woman, whose evile wiles included promiscuity.) That stupidity got dumped in the eighties--maybe it's time for the het/marriage part to get dumped too. As for Romance novels as a category, the women over at Smart Bithces (http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/index/) have some interesting stuff to say.
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 06:47 pm (UTC)