Romance Studies Overview

Principles

Definition

Romance studies is an interdisciplinary academic field dedicated to the comprehensive study of the Romance languages, literatures, and cultures that originated from Latin. It investigates the linguistic evolution, literary traditions, historical contexts, and cultural phenomena of the regions where these languages are spoken, providing critical insights into linguistic relationships, cultural heritage, and global interactions.

Ontological type

Core Subdisciplines

Historical Development

Theoretical Frameworks

Key developments

Key Figures

Philological Intertextualism era

Cathy N. Davidson [1] was affiliated with Rice University [3] and Michigan State University [4] during the Philological Intertextualism era. Her key contributions in this era include Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature [6], which traced how women readers engaged with popular literature to negotiate patriarchy and map reception networks, reflecting the era's emphasis on textual-historical methods and intertextual historicism. Janice Radway [2] was affiliated with University of Pennsylvania [5] during this era. Her work, Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature [6], helped establish reader-centered approaches and reception studies, demonstrating how everyday reading practices shaped canon formation and historical networks in Romance Studies.

Transnational Feminist Turn era

Achille Mbembé [1] is a central figure in the Transnational Feminist Turn (1988-2008), with intellectual associations at Yale University [3] and Columbia University [4] in this era. His work on necropolitics [7] and The Banality of Power and the Aesthetics of Vulgarity in the Postcolony [8] provided analytical tools for reading romance as embedded within imperial networks and social power, thereby clarifying why these questions mattered for this era. Susan McClary [2] is a pivotal voice in this era, with affiliations at University of California, Los Angeles [5] and University of Minnesota [6]. Her Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality [9] reframed investigations of romance by foregrounding gendered embodiment and cross-cultural readings, marking a consequential shift for transnational feminist approaches in this period.

Translingual Geocritical Globalism era

Cati V. de los Ríos [1] has affiliations with University of California, Berkeley [3] and Columbia University [4] in this era. Her key contribution, Toward a<i>Corridista</i>Consciousness: Learning From One Transnational Youth's Critical Reading, Writing, and Performance of Mexican Corridos [6], demonstrates how transnational youth engagement with corridos illuminates cross-border circulation, translation practices, and the mobilities shaping authorship in this era. Megan O. Drinkwater [2] has affiliations with Agnes Scott College [5] in this era. Her 2012 study “HIS TURN TO CRY:” TIBULLUS’ MARATHUS CYCLE (1.4, 1.8 AND 1.9) AND ROMAN ELEGY [7] engages classical reception to reveal multilingual reception and transnational readings, underscoring how such reinterpretations contribute to the era's translingual geocritical scholarship.