This week’s prompt is a good one. Is womens lit a sub-genre of romance?
My opinion , for what it’s worth, would-be romance is a sub-genre of women’s lit. When I think o f women’s fiction or chick lit. A novel which is centered around a woman and her life experiences. I think of books like Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and others in the classic genre. If you’re thinking more contemporary, Waiting to Exhale, How Stella got her Groove Back, The Secret Life of Bees, Nineteen Minutes I think it’s called The Summer House, about 3 women who had the same birthday and they meet at the DMV to get their licenses renewed. and a couple of others I could tell you about, but can’t remember or find the title. That’s what I think of when someone says women’s lit.
The focus isn’t on the developing relationship between the heroine and hero, but what the woman experiences, or wishes she could experience. My take on this could be totally wrong and I’m good with that.
I think writers, over the years, saw a chance with women’s lit to delve deeper into her romantic nature and allow readers and in turn themselves to be seen as not just mothers and wives, but desirable, sexual, competent creatures who can still be wife and mothers. At least that’s my take on the prompt.
Lynn, I like this perspective better than the one I took–it makes perfect sense!