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

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As a cover term, I will use the category Quaker romances to refer to all the romances with Quaker protagonists, that is, those in which either the heroine or the hero, or both, belong to the Religious Society of Friends. This is therefore the broadest category I will be using. Within it, there are two other categories: Christian or Inspirational Quaker romances, and secular Quaker romances.

Christian romances (often referred to in the romance community as “inspirationals”) are those romances published by Evangelical Christian publishing houses. As defined in “Inspirational Romance” by Rebecca Barrett-Fox and Kristen Donnelly (2021), they show the characters’ relationship with God, and a lack of detail about theology or religious ritual; they display no sexual contact (which is why they are also referred to as “clean” or “sweet” romances) and they tend to present women characters in traditional gender roles (though heroes may be less traditionally masculine than men in secular romances); finally, they portray a world where there is a brokenness of some kind, but the narrative proves that faith in God will eventually restore the said brokenness.