CFP: MLA Convention 2015

Laura Vivanco

The MLA Convention 2015 will take place in Vancouver from January 8-11 and Maria Teresa Ramos-Garcia has posted two calls for papers related to romance:

Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy in the 21st Century

Why has the paranormal become so prevalent in romance? How are romance conventions, expectations, and readership altered in this subgenre?

Fifty Heirs of Grey

How has the success of Fifty Shades of Grey influenced the reading and writing of romance novels, as well as the marketing of erotica?

If you're interested in presenting a paper, send a 300-word abstract to Maria (maria.ramos@sdstate.edu) by 15 March 2014.

Out Now: Issue 4.1 of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies

Laura Vivanco

As Eric Selinger observes in his introduction to the latest issue of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies,

we have three essays on the subgenre of erotic romance:  two on the most famous recent contribution to that subgenre, E. L. James’s Fifty Shades trilogy, engaging it via the sharply different perspectives of fan-fiction / fandom studies and the history of white masculinity; one on the groundbreaking collection Macho Sluts (1988) by Patrick Califia, which situates this volume of lesbian BDSM fiction at the crossroads of public history (the feminist anti-pornography movement of the 1980s), queer activism, and romance genre conventions.

 They're

• Fifty Shades of “Mommy Porn”: A Post-GFC Renegotiation of Paternal Law
  by Claire Trevenen
• Fifty Shades of Remix: The Intersecting Pleasures of Commercial and Fan Romances
  by Katherine Morrissey
• The Political Uses of Lesbian Romance Fiction: Reading Patrick Califia’s Macho Sluts as a Response to 1980s Anti-Pornography Feminism
  by Carolyn Bronstein

There is also a special section dedicated to Love in Latin American Popular Culture:

• Special Issue: Love in Latin American Popular Culture (Editor’s Introduction)
  by David William Foster
• Regimes of Affect: Love and Class in Mexican Neoliberal Cinema
  by Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado
• Vulnerable Bodies: Subverting Masculine Normativity in Leopoldo Torre Nilsson’s Boquitas pintadas
  by Assen Kokalov
• From Latin to Latino Lover: Hispanicity and Female Desire in Popular Culture
  by Nadia Lie
• Sara García: Sapphic Romance in Mexican Golden Age Filmmaking
  by Ileana Baeza Lope
• Outing Javier Fuentes-León’s Contracorriente and the case for a New Queer Cinema in Latin America
  by Vinodh Venkatesh
• Romantic Love in Mexico and Latin America: An Interview with Enrique Serna
  by Michael K. Schuessler

And, of course, there are a number of reviews:

• Review: New Approaches to Popular Romance Fiction: Critical Essays
  edited by Sarah S. G. Frantz and Eric Murphy Selinger
• Review: Delmira Agustini, Sexual Seduction and Vampiric Conquest
  by Cathy L. Jrade
• Review: Trauma and Romance in Contemporary British Literature
  edited by Jean-Michel Ganteau and Susana Onega
• Review: Gothicka: Vampire Heroes, Human Gods, and the New Supernatural
  by Victoria Nelson