Читать книгу American Quaker Romances. Building the Myth of the White Christian Nation онлайн

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Many portrayals of Quakerism are bound to be loosely based on popularly held stereotypes rather than on actual Friends and they disregard the diversity that has existed within Quakerism since the nineteenth century. There is therefore a risk in approaching those, at times, inaccurate portrayals of Quakerism, especially if whoever deals with them is, like myself, an outsider to Quakerism, and who, unintentionally, may be further reproducing incorrect representations. On my behalf I can only say that I am conscious of that danger and have done my best to avoid it. This book’s main goal is to study the reasons why Quakers have come to inhabit the pages of many a romance, not to further exoticize or stereotype them.

Quaker Romances: A Subgenre within Christian Romances

The genre of popular romance has not been immune to the appeal of the Religious Society of Friends. The goal of this book is precisely to explore that attraction, although the analysis must first take into account the existence of a subgenre within the field of the romance, that is, the group of so-called Christian or Inspirational romances. Not all the romances that feature Quaker protagonists are Christian romances, however, though many are. Consequently, some notes on the terminology that I will be using to refer to the various types of romances considered in this book seem to be called for.