White Protestantism: Race and Religious Ethos in Romance Novels

Abstract

Romance fiction produced in the West has a global audience. The Harlequin website, for instance, reports a stake in 111 international markets (“About Harlequin”). I myself encountered the genre in India when I was a pre-teen (primarily through the Mills and Boon imprint, which is ubiquitous in former British colonies). This international readership commanded by romance fiction— from the Harlequin Mill and Boon category novels to the single title works published by American romance publishers—would suggest that the genre transcends national boundaries through universally resonant stories. But up until recently, as other chapters in this book show, romance fiction has largely limited itself to protagonists who are heterosexual, Western, and evince a middle-class outlook (despite any aristocratic veneer); in other words, romance fiction involves stories that are quite culturally specific. Indeed, on closer examination, the alleged “universal” nature of mass-market romance fiction can be seen to contain a narrative that normativizes said Westernness—and more accurately, whiteness.