María Ramos-García is professor of Spanish at South Dakota State University.Laura Vivanco holds a PhD from the University of St. Andrews.

Ramos-Garcia and Vivanco's collection investigates and challenges problematic, imperialist representations of non-Anglo Others in romance novels. Originating as papers presented at the First International Seminar on Languages and Cultures in Contact in the Romance Novel (Univ. of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2017), the essays are divided into two parts: "Place, Travel, History and Language" looks at romance fiction before 1990, "Tensions and Transformations" at romance fiction after 1990. The essays in part 1 demonstrate how romance fiction promotes cultural and national supremacy; the ways whiteness serves as the implied standard for beauty, desirability, and relationships; and stereotypical and faulty attempts at portraying diverse, accurate, and sensitive characters and story lines. Those in part 2 consider who has access to publish romance novels, explore new and promising subgenres of romance (e.g., steampunk, paranormal), describe what might sufficiently constitute nuanced representations of difference, and assess whether there can ever be sensitive and politically neutral representations of romance. An important book for anyone interested in textual criticism, romance, and the significance of popular media. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.

• PrefaceIntroduction: María Ramos-García and Laura VivancoPart I: Place, Travel, History and LanguageChapter 1: Britannia’s Daughters: Popular Romance Fiction and the Ideology of National Superiority (1950s-1970s)María del Mar Pérez-GilChapter 2: ‘And they Drive on the Wrong Side of the Road’: The Anglo-centric Vision of the Canary Islands in Mills & Boon Romance Novels (1955-1987)María Jesús Vera-CazorlaChapter 3: Cross-Cultural Romance and the Shadow of the SheikhMaureen MulliganChapter 4: Othering and Language: Bilingual Romances in the Canary IslandsMaría Isabel González-CruzChapter 5:Language Awareness in Four Romances Set on the Island of MadeiraAline BazengaChapter 6: Archipelagoes of Romance: Decapitalized Otherness in Caribbean Trash FictionRamón Soto-CrespoPart II: Tensions and TransformationsChapter 7: Public Conflicts and Private Treaties in Kathleen Eagle’s Native American Themed Romance FictionJohanna HoorenmanChapter 8: Changing Attitudes to Others: Meljean Brook’s Riveted (2012) and its ContextLaura VivancoChapter 9: Representations of Otherness in Paranormal Romance: Race and Wealth in Nalini Singh and J.R. Ward”María Ramos-GarcíaChapter 10: ‘There’s Something Charming about a Man with an Accent, Isn’t There?’ The Representation of Otherness in Three Novels by Lisa Kleypas”Inmaculada Pérez-Casal

María Ramos-García is professor of Spanish at South Dakota State University.Laura Vivanco holds a PhD from the University of St. Andrews.

Ramos-Garcia and Vivanco's collection investigates and challenges problematic, imperialist representations of non-Anglo Others in romance novels. Originating as papers presented at the First International Seminar on Languages and Cultures in Contact in the Romance Novel (Univ. of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2017), the essays are divided into two parts: "Place, Travel, History and Language" looks at romance fiction before 1990, "Tensions and Transformations" at romance fiction after 1990. The essays in part 1 demonstrate how romance fiction promotes cultural and national supremacy; the ways whiteness serves as the implied standard for beauty, desirability, and relationships; and stereotypical and faulty attempts at portraying diverse, accurate, and sensitive characters and story lines. Those in part 2 consider who has access to publish romance novels, explore new and promising subgenres of romance (e.g., steampunk, paranormal), describe what might sufficiently constitute nuanced representations of difference, and assess whether there can ever be sensitive and politically neutral representations of romance. An important book for anyone interested in textual criticism, romance, and the significance of popular media. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.

• PrefaceIntroduction: María Ramos-García and Laura VivancoPart I: Place, Travel, History and LanguageChapter 1: Britannia’s Daughters: Popular Romance Fiction and the Ideology of National Superiority (1950s-1970s)María del Mar Pérez-GilChapter 2: ‘And they Drive on the Wrong Side of the Road’: The Anglo-centric Vision of the Canary Islands in Mills & Boon Romance Novels (1955-1987)María Jesús Vera-CazorlaChapter 3: Cross-Cultural Romance and the Shadow of the SheikhMaureen MulliganChapter 4: Othering and Language: Bilingual Romances in the Canary IslandsMaría Isabel González-CruzChapter 5:Language Awareness in Four Romances Set on the Island of MadeiraAline BazengaChapter 6: Archipelagoes of Romance: Decapitalized Otherness in Caribbean Trash FictionRamón Soto-CrespoPart II: Tensions and TransformationsChapter 7: Public Conflicts and Private Treaties in Kathleen Eagle’s Native American Themed Romance FictionJohanna HoorenmanChapter 8: Changing Attitudes to Others: Meljean Brook’s Riveted (2012) and its ContextLaura VivancoChapter 9: Representations of Otherness in Paranormal Romance: Race and Wealth in Nalini Singh and J.R. Ward”María Ramos-GarcíaChapter 10: ‘There’s Something Charming about a Man with an Accent, Isn’t There?’ The Representation of Otherness in Three Novels by Lisa Kleypas”Inmaculada Pérez-Casal

María Ramos-García is professor of Spanish at South Dakota State University.Laura Vivanco holds a PhD from the University of St. Andrews.

Ramos-Garcia and Vivanco's collection investigates and challenges problematic, imperialist representations of non-Anglo Others in romance novels. Originating as papers presented at the First International Seminar on Languages and Cultures in Contact in the Romance Novel (Univ. of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2017), the essays are divided into two parts: "Place, Travel, History and Language" looks at romance fiction before 1990, "Tensions and Transformations" at romance fiction after 1990. The essays in part 1 demonstrate how romance fiction promotes cultural and national supremacy; the ways whiteness serves as the implied standard for beauty, desirability, and relationships; and stereotypical and faulty attempts at portraying diverse, accurate, and sensitive characters and story lines. Those in part 2 consider who has access to publish romance novels, explore new and promising subgenres of romance (e.g., steampunk, paranormal), describe what might sufficiently constitute nuanced representations of difference, and assess whether there can ever be sensitive and politically neutral representations of romance. An important book for anyone interested in textual criticism, romance, and the significance of popular media. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.

• PrefaceIntroduction: María Ramos-García and Laura VivancoPart I: Place, Travel, History and LanguageChapter 1: Britannia’s Daughters: Popular Romance Fiction and the Ideology of National Superiority (1950s-1970s)María del Mar Pérez-GilChapter 2: ‘And they Drive on the Wrong Side of the Road’: The Anglo-centric Vision of the Canary Islands in Mills & Boon Romance Novels (1955-1987)María Jesús Vera-CazorlaChapter 3: Cross-Cultural Romance and the Shadow of the SheikhMaureen MulliganChapter 4: Othering and Language: Bilingual Romances in the Canary IslandsMaría Isabel González-CruzChapter 5:Language Awareness in Four Romances Set on the Island of MadeiraAline BazengaChapter 6: Archipelagoes of Romance: Decapitalized Otherness in Caribbean Trash FictionRamón Soto-CrespoPart II: Tensions and TransformationsChapter 7: Public Conflicts and Private Treaties in Kathleen Eagle’s Native American Themed Romance FictionJohanna HoorenmanChapter 8: Changing Attitudes to Others: Meljean Brook’s Riveted (2012) and its ContextLaura VivancoChapter 9: Representations of Otherness in Paranormal Romance: Race and Wealth in Nalini Singh and J.R. Ward”María Ramos-GarcíaChapter 10: ‘There’s Something Charming about a Man with an Accent, Isn’t There?’ The Representation of Otherness in Three Novels by Lisa Kleypas”Inmaculada Pérez-Casal