Gender, Genre and Narrative Pleasure

Regarded as an important part of cultural analysis, popular fiction is the subject of this series which is intended to provide a context for the critical study of popular fiction, drawing on interdisciplinary inquiry and addressing key questions of class, gender, race, nation and regionalism. Among the questions addressed are how do the institutions and processes involved in the production of popular fictions shape the ways in which texts and genres, meanings and ideological values are distributed and circulated? How does British popular culture interact with other cultures, especially American? How do popular fictions address their readership in terms of class, race, gender, age, regionalism and national identity? Under what material conditions does reading as a social practice take place? and what do readers draw upon in order to make sense of a popular narrative? This is collection of essays which focus on sexual politics and gender as central to understanding popular narrative. Essays on the western, melodrama, crime fiction, the political thriller and horror and science fiction are included.