Romance Fandom in 21st-Century Pakistan

Javaria Farooqui is Assistant Professor of English and Literary Studies at COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, Pakistan. Dr. Farooqui’s research interests fall across multiple disciplines and topic areas in the humanities and social sciences, including fan studies, book history, women’s writing and histories, digital humanities, language acquisition, popular romance studies, and reader response studies. She is engaged in research projects that explore the reception and materiality of texts, the ramifications of colonization and its aftermath on a nation’s literary culture, gender-based violence, and the problematic reception of Anglophone movies in Pakistan.

Javaria Farooqui's Romance Fandom in 21st-Century Pakistan is certain to become a vital text for scholars of both romance and readers in years to come. Drawing together fan studies and popular romance, it is a lively, rigorous and compelling discussion of the practices of Pakistani readers of Regency romance, examining the complex ways people approach and negotiate these texts. Its core strength is in the way it seeks to take these readers seriously, allowing them to be the experts on their own experiences and situating that in broader critical contexts.

• Introduction1. “And if I am escaping, it should better be a higher form of romance”: Middlebrow Reading in Pakistan2. “…the scarf on the table” and the “dimly lit” stove: Developing a Close Reading Model for Setting3. “How desi, how very Regency”: Applying the Model to the Regency SettingConclusionWorks CitedAppendix AAppendix BIndex