Abstract
Reading the Romance. Women, Patriarchy and Popular Literature Janice A. Radway The romance-reading phenomenon, considered non only from the internal narrative structure, but also, through an ethnographic investigation, from the practices and interpretations of their readers, appears to be a fundamentally ambivalent practice. It reinforces traditional values and institutions and carries oppositional aspects (can be said an «oppositional moment»), at the same time. The stereotyped narratives and characters, the social world divided into male public sphere and female private sphere, the inavoidable happy ending through marriage combine to bring about a conservative vision of social roles. However, the reading of romance, which arises out of dissatisfaction regarding the relationships between men and women, is interpreted by the readers themselves as a compensatory and a combative act, claiming to their own space and time, as the learning of assertiveness and thus can be seen as a minimal but nonetheless legitimate form of protest.
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