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.

本硕士论文（图书馆学）概述了评估浪漫小说的多种途径，尤其是那些避免将类型小说视为‘低劣’严肃小说的评估方法。特别是，它探讨了小说中的‘女性’类型（包括多种不同类型的浪漫小说）为何被视为低于‘男性’类型（惊悚小说、科幻小说等）。这种认为‘她们’的小说类型低劣的观念被女性图书馆读者所同化（她们常常为自己的品味道歉，即使在大量借阅浪漫小说的同时）。本论文旨在为公共图书馆员提供评估小说的方法，旨在‘验证’而非贬低其读者。