Genre Worlds and Popular Fiction: The Case of Twenty‐First‐Century Australian Romance

A sea of islands, a sea of crime: island crime fiction in the Aegean Sea

“…It provides a geographically focused analysis of island crime paratext in order to show that reading beyond the text of popular genres can offer new ways to re-think islands. As Lisa Fletcher, Beth Driscoll, and Kim Wilkins have argued in relation to 21 st -century Australian romance, the study of popular fiction can only benefit from critics straddling literary and cultural studies, publishing studies, and book history (Fletcher et al, 2018). Similarly, the study of island-set crime fiction can only benefit from critics straddling literary studies and island studies to produce alternative approaches to the reading of both popular crime fiction (or, indeed, other popular fiction genres) and islands.…”

New Adult Fiction

“…Even in a short amount of time, what a genre label refers to can develop and change extremely rapidly. Genre is a process, not a static phenomenon (Fletcher et al 2018;Wilkins 2005). Therefore, what do we need to take into account when discussing genre in the marketplace?…”

“…The existence of the texts is not enough. A potential readership must exist, and a body of authors must exist capable of catering to this readership: readerly and writerly communities that fall under the 'social formation' sector of the publishing world as theorised by Fletcher, Driscoll & Wilkins (2018). Moreover, institutional and industrial forces must be able to connect the readers and the writers, supporting the growth of the genre and assisting the texts to find their market.…”

The TV recap as paratext: Energizing, contextualizing, and modifying The Bachelor Australia

“…With the exception of my recaps, all of these are written by freelance journalists. While there are different nuances, each recap positions its author in broadly the same way: as engaging with the show from an ironic perspective, but also as deeply familiar with its tropes and structures because of a long history of committed viewership, overtly demonstrating their genre competence -that is, their "ability to comprehend a text in relation to storytelling conventions that have been learned through reading [or, here, viewing]" (Fletcher et al, 2018(Fletcher et al, , 1007. This is line with the "snarkastic" mode engagement Jack Bratich (2010) has theorised as a form of intimacy management, where one is repelled by the object of discussion but also inexorably attracted to and fascinated by it (65).…”