Researching about orientalism through the Weatern vs Eastern romance literature. You would have thought it's easier to find one through the Western lens, but I didn't grow up with English books so it's pretty hard for me to know where to start with "classics".
For example, in Thai we have a lot of orientalism narrative in romance book. A Thai girl (who is usually "westernized" but will in th end learn the value of being conservative) who got transport back in time or kidnap into harem/royal court of ancient Egypt/ottoman empire/vague middle eastern setting.
These books are always pretty high quality in writing, but soapy nonetheless (is 'Harlequin romance' the right word?). Im trying to look for an equivalent of this genre in English just to compare the narrative.
by In_All_Over_My_Head
3 Comments
I can’t help with the specifics of your question, but I can tell you that Harlequins are pretty lightweight romances, with more longing and attraction and less sex. They’re comparable to Mills & Boon in the UK if that comparison is at all useful to you, which I acknowledge it may not be!
I do feel like there’s some orientalism in western romance, but the little I’ve read has been more focused on Native Americans as the “exotic other”.
Hey! So I think you got downloaded becuase in English, “orientalism” has a very racist context, and you’re not looking for that, you’re looking to compare narratives. Might be worth putting this in your title (“I’m researching orientalism in romance”) in the future so folks don’t jump to conclusions.
The folks on the RomanceBooks and HistoricalRomance might be able to help you, too.
A lot of English versions of these kinds of books tend to focus on — you guessed it — England, with many of them set in the Regency or Victorian eras. There’s not a lot of Asia or the Middle East at all, even though there were many immigrants from India especially during these eras. In English romances, often when these kinds of stories happen, they’re about the fantasy of the setting.
I don’t have any titles off the top of my head for you but the Romance Books subreddit has giant megathread lists ([themed-](https://new.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/comments/1cony9y/the_themed_megathread_resource_post/) and [diversity-based](https://new.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/comments/1conxmv/the_diversity_megathread_resource_post/)) that might be a good place to start!
Try this.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_in_India