One of the challenges for a 21st century researcher having grown up with popular romantic fiction such as that published by Harlequin, and Mills & Boon, classified as ‘romance’, is turning their attention to the early 20th century where the innocuous word has an entirely different meaning. Certainly, to consider early science fiction that touches on regenerative violence such as H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds or Flash Gordon’s galactic swashbuckling cinematic adventures, with the label ‘romance’ may cause one to have a stroke. In fact, this researcher’s disdain for any kind of romantic notions in fiction would result in, at the very least, tea to be spit across their computer screen if something such as Cole’s The Struggle for Empire ever ended up in Amazon’s romance section.
And so, this post is written for those who read reviews of pre 20th century works and wonder why ‘romance’ has been applied to a work about trolls and elves, or why Alice in Wonderland is labelled a romance when she is obviously underaged. Of course, the flip side is also true in that a researcher may be disappointed to find stories where some kissing and even possibly fornication were expected but couldn’t be found in the 19th century French romance fiction Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne.
Certainly, with so many genres to choose from in the 21st century, how is it possible that everything was lumped under just one, just over a hundred years go? How did anyone ever find anything they wanted to read? When did romance become the genre we recognise it to be today? When did the Boomers decide that romance meant romantic fiction, and every generation that followed recognised it as such, but the previous ‘silent’ generation continued to believe that science fiction and fantasy adventure shows and movies like Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars, Blake’s 7 and Battlestar Galactica were classified as romance?
Depending on who you speak to, which country you’re in, and what evidence is accepted, you may get different answers as to when romance became just romantic fiction. Before I go into that, though, it is worth noting, and I thank Britannica for this, that romance comes from the Old French word ‘romanz’ – “the speech of the people”. It also comes from the Latin ‘Romanice’ meaning “the vulgar tongue” (Britannica – romance literature and performance)
So, romance is popular fiction, or pulp fiction, as opposed to literary fiction. The link gives you a very detailed history of the word, but I think, like most fiction these days, you’re going to be surprised by the twist.
The fact of the matter is that there has only ever been romantic fiction. Over the centuries, romantic fiction has included adventures that separate and bring together the main protagonists. Perhaps not in the explicit ways we might read today, but certainly lovers were separated and got back together. Now, anything can happen in that adventure. Separated across borders. Separated across seas. Separated between classes. Separated by wars, by opposite sides, by religion, by… you name it. Science fiction, for example was merely the next step of adding some prophetic extrapolation of science into a separation story. And that separation story did not need to ever be obvious. It could be a scientist and their assistant who ‘admire’ each other, and that’s it. It could be a boy sold into slavery finally getting back to his village and greeting the one he loves. No noticeable romantic actions. Not even a hug is needed. Yet, because there is an attraction, or a reason for living – the undefinable romance – these separation stories were all labelled romances.
I prefer to think that, with the end of the 19th century, and romanticism already in its death throws, (the emotional art movement) along with the introduction of new technology like electricity and the telephone, that separation stories were already on the way out as a useful trope. After all, if you could contact each other via telegram or telephone, then filling in the gaps in a story with adventures to increase separation anxiety was less likely. In fact, with the rise of pure romances such as Pride and Prejudice, and Wuthering Heights, those romances with adventures taking up most of them had begun to be less popular as a romantic story, and more popular as a story that could be classified into a recognisable genre. I would say 1900 is when romance started to become more popular as a separate genre, and this is borne out by more pure romantic stories being found in newspapers of the time.
So, what really happened was that the fiction genres became more defined as more similar stories were written, and the romanticism disappeared from them. The romance was no longer about separation from a future partner. It could simply be a separation. How many times has a captain been separated from their ship? A traveller from their country?
As each adventure became more creative and less focused on the separation between two people, situations, property or events, more genres were formed. As each form of genre became clearer, crime, gothic, fantasy, space opera, etc, more works were written that redefined them and expanded what they were into something more.
The twist is that romance hasn’t been added to science fiction, just as it hasn’t been added to detective stories or fantasy. All those other genres came from romance and what we know as romantic fiction today, was simply a distillation of the kinds of stories original romances were like over 2000 years ago. They have always been here and will always be here and will continue to create new genres as the world moves forward. Romance is the original progenitor of every genre you have ever encountered.
Romance=Popular Fiction
Now, excuse me while I get a stiff drink.
Keywords: Adventurous romance, romantic fiction, romanticism, original romances
