A romantic past : a study of historical romance as a form of recreational fiction in public libraries

This MA (Library Studies) thesis outlines the various ways in which romantic fiction can be assessed - especially ways that avoid treating genre fiction as 'inferior' serious fiction. In particular it examines the way that the 'feminine' genres of fiction (including the many different types of romantic fiction) are regarded as inferior to the 'masculine' genres (thrillers, science fiction etc). The idea that 'their' fiction genres are inferior is assimilated by female library patrons (who often apologised for their taste, even while borrowing romantic novels in large quantities). This thesis aimed to provide public librarians with ways of assessing the fiction that would 'validate' rather than denigrate its readers.

本图书馆学文学硕士（Master of Arts in Library Studies）学位论文梳理了浪漫小说的各类评价路径，尤其聚焦于那些避免将类型小说视作‘低人一等’的严肃文学的评价方式。具体而言，该论文探讨了‘女性向’小说类型（涵盖多种浪漫小说子类）被视为劣于‘男性向’类型小说（惊悚小说、科幻小说等）的现状。女性图书馆读者往往会接纳‘自身偏好的小说类型低人一等’这一认知——即便她们大量借阅浪漫小说，仍常会为自己的阅读品味致歉。本论文旨在为公共图书馆馆员提供能够‘肯定读者’而非贬低读者的小说评价方法。