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Women's Reading and Writing Practices: Chick-Lit as A Site of Struggle in Popular Culture and Literature

Year 2015, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 27 - 33, 18.04.2015
https://doi.org/10.18769/ijasos.94381

Abstract

This paper represents an exploration into “chick-lit” literature and its significance in the popular cultural context. As a genre of popular literature written for young urban women, the tremendous commercial success of the popular chick-lit fiction inevitably calls for a critical assessment of its status within popular culture and literature. This paper aims to explore the genre’s significance for the research about popular literature, its relationship to literary and scholarly criticism, as well as women’s reading and writing practices. By focusing on the production, consumption and reception of chick-lit as a global feminine genre, the paper presents the main characteristics of chick-lit fiction and its differences from other genres such as conventional romances. It also highlights the strengths and limitations of the genre in relation to literary values and cultural standards. Chick-lit’s incredible popularity as a cultural and literary phenomenon is further investigated by drawing upon several critical debates introduced by Lawrence W. Levine, Stuart Hall, John Fiske and Michel de Certeau. This paper also considers chick-lit as a deeply contradictory genre of literature that generates highly polarized responses, thus as a site of continuous struggle between “consent and resistance” (Hall 466). To view chick-lit either from an entirely negative or positive perspective would be to oversimplify both the genre and the issues related to literature. Therefore, by considering chick-lit’s both wide appeal to its readers and denunciation by literary critics as trivial fiction, and exploring the positions taken up in academic and popular discussions about the genre, the paper seeks to examine the polarized responses and the questions chick-lit raises regarding literature, popular culture and contemporary socio-cultural realities of women.

Keywords: Chick-lit, popular culture, literary criticism, women’s fiction, cultural studies

References

  • Mlynowski, Sarah & Jacobs, Farrin. See Jane Write: A Girl's Guide to Writing Chick-lit. Quirk Books, 2006.
  • Mitchell, Claudia & Reid-Walsh, Jacqueline. Girl Culture. Greenwood, 2007.
  • Ferriss, Suzanne & Mallory Young. Chick-lit: The New Woman’s Fiction. New York: Routledge, 2006a.
  • --- “A Generational Divide Over Chick-lit”. Chronicle of Higher Education. Vol. 52, No. 38, 2006b.
  • --- “Chick Flicks: Contemporary Women at the Movies.” Routledge, 2007.
  • Zernike, Kate. “Oh, to write a “Bridget Jones’ for Men: A Guy Can Dream.” 22 February 2004. 9.1-2. New York Times. 20 May 2009 <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/22/style/oh-to-write-a-bridget-jones-for-men-a-guy-can-dream.html
  • Smith, Caroline J. Cosmopolitan Culture and Consumerism in Chick-Lit. Routledge, 2007.
  • La'Brooy, Melanie. “Who's afraid of Bridget Jones?” 11 December 2005. The Australian. 1 May 2009
  • < www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,17179744-32542,00.html>
  • Jones, R. “Female Fiction Dumbs Down”. 23 August 2001. BBC News. 22 May 2009
  • < http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/1504733.stm.>
  • Kiernan, Anna. “No Satisfaction: Sex and The City, Run Catch Kiss and the Conflict of Desires, in Chick-lit’s New Heroines.” Chick-lit: The New Women’s Fiction. ed. by S. Ferriss and M. Young, New York: Routledge, 2006.
  • Hall, Stuart. “Notes on Deconstructing the Popular”. People's History and Socialist Theory. London: Routledge, 1981.
  • Mazza, Cris. “Who is Laughing Now? A Short History of Chick-lit and the Perversion of the Genre.” Chick-lit: The Scott, Alison M. “Romance in the Stacks, or, Popular Romance Fiction Imperiled.” Scorned literature: Essays on the History and Criticism of Popular Mass-produced Fiction in America. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.
  • Ezard, J. “Bainbridge Tilts at Froth”. 24 August, 2001. The Guardian. p. 7. 22 May 2009
  • < http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2001/aug/24/books.generalfiction>
  • Thomas, Scarlett. “The great chick lit conspiracy”. 4 August 2002. The Independent. 20 May 2009 <http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-great-chick-lit-conspiracy-638935.html>
  • Levine, Lawrence W. “The Folklore of Industrial Society: Popular Culture and Its Audiences.” The American
  • Historical Review. Vol. 97, No. 5, 1992.
  • Ward, Alyson. “While some predict an early death for the new genre of `chick' literature, others say it's an
  • Industry that's just started hatching.” 9 August 2003. Star-Telegram.
  • <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nfh&AN=2W73016135558&site=ehost-live >
  • Whelehan, Imelda. The Feminist Bestseller: From Sex and the Single Girl to Sex and the City. New York, 2005.
  • --- Overloaded: Popular Culture and the Future of Feminism. London: Women’s Press, 2000.
  • Fiske, John. Understanding Popular Culture. London: Routledge, 1987.
  • --- “Shopping for Pleasure: Malls, Power and Resistance.” Reading the Popular. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989.
  • De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. University of California Press, 2002.
  • Butler, Pamela & Desai Jigna. “Manolos, Marriage, and Mantras: Criticism and Transnational Feminism.” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism. Vol. 8, no. 2, 2008. Fielding, Helen. Bridget Jones’s Diary. New York: Penguin Publishing, 1996.
Year 2015, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 27 - 33, 18.04.2015
https://doi.org/10.18769/ijasos.94381

Abstract

References

  • Mlynowski, Sarah & Jacobs, Farrin. See Jane Write: A Girl's Guide to Writing Chick-lit. Quirk Books, 2006.
  • Mitchell, Claudia & Reid-Walsh, Jacqueline. Girl Culture. Greenwood, 2007.
  • Ferriss, Suzanne & Mallory Young. Chick-lit: The New Woman’s Fiction. New York: Routledge, 2006a.
  • --- “A Generational Divide Over Chick-lit”. Chronicle of Higher Education. Vol. 52, No. 38, 2006b.
  • --- “Chick Flicks: Contemporary Women at the Movies.” Routledge, 2007.
  • Zernike, Kate. “Oh, to write a “Bridget Jones’ for Men: A Guy Can Dream.” 22 February 2004. 9.1-2. New York Times. 20 May 2009 <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/22/style/oh-to-write-a-bridget-jones-for-men-a-guy-can-dream.html
  • Smith, Caroline J. Cosmopolitan Culture and Consumerism in Chick-Lit. Routledge, 2007.
  • La'Brooy, Melanie. “Who's afraid of Bridget Jones?” 11 December 2005. The Australian. 1 May 2009
  • < www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,17179744-32542,00.html>
  • Jones, R. “Female Fiction Dumbs Down”. 23 August 2001. BBC News. 22 May 2009
  • < http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/1504733.stm.>
  • Kiernan, Anna. “No Satisfaction: Sex and The City, Run Catch Kiss and the Conflict of Desires, in Chick-lit’s New Heroines.” Chick-lit: The New Women’s Fiction. ed. by S. Ferriss and M. Young, New York: Routledge, 2006.
  • Hall, Stuart. “Notes on Deconstructing the Popular”. People's History and Socialist Theory. London: Routledge, 1981.
  • Mazza, Cris. “Who is Laughing Now? A Short History of Chick-lit and the Perversion of the Genre.” Chick-lit: The Scott, Alison M. “Romance in the Stacks, or, Popular Romance Fiction Imperiled.” Scorned literature: Essays on the History and Criticism of Popular Mass-produced Fiction in America. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.
  • Ezard, J. “Bainbridge Tilts at Froth”. 24 August, 2001. The Guardian. p. 7. 22 May 2009
  • < http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2001/aug/24/books.generalfiction>
  • Thomas, Scarlett. “The great chick lit conspiracy”. 4 August 2002. The Independent. 20 May 2009 <http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-great-chick-lit-conspiracy-638935.html>
  • Levine, Lawrence W. “The Folklore of Industrial Society: Popular Culture and Its Audiences.” The American
  • Historical Review. Vol. 97, No. 5, 1992.
  • Ward, Alyson. “While some predict an early death for the new genre of `chick' literature, others say it's an
  • Industry that's just started hatching.” 9 August 2003. Star-Telegram.
  • <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nfh&AN=2W73016135558&site=ehost-live >
  • Whelehan, Imelda. The Feminist Bestseller: From Sex and the Single Girl to Sex and the City. New York, 2005.
  • --- Overloaded: Popular Culture and the Future of Feminism. London: Women’s Press, 2000.
  • Fiske, John. Understanding Popular Culture. London: Routledge, 1987.
  • --- “Shopping for Pleasure: Malls, Power and Resistance.” Reading the Popular. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989.
  • De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. University of California Press, 2002.
  • Butler, Pamela & Desai Jigna. “Manolos, Marriage, and Mantras: Criticism and Transnational Feminism.” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism. Vol. 8, no. 2, 2008. Fielding, Helen. Bridget Jones’s Diary. New York: Penguin Publishing, 1996.
There are 28 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Burcu Baykan

Publication Date April 18, 2015
Submission Date March 28, 2015
Published in Issue Year 2015Volume: 1 Issue: 1

Cite

EndNote Baykan B (April 1, 2015) Women’s Reading and Writing Practices: Chick-Lit as A Site of Struggle in Popular Culture and Literature. IJASOS- International E-journal of Advances in Social Sciences 1 1 27–33.

Contact: ijasosjournal@hotmail.com

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