Are romance novels all the same? Are their readers all bored housewives and BookTok girlies? Of course not! Romance experts Jodi McAlister and Jayashree Kamble debunk the myths and deliver the facts.
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Articles on Bridgerton
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Whalebone is the colloquial English term for a material known as baleen. Baleen is not bone.
There are many areas in the show where historical fact is sacrificed on the altar of artistic license, but glimmers of the real Queen Charlotte shine through.
Queen Charlotte captured viewers’ attention in the Netflix series Bridgerton as the snuff-sniffing, gossip-garnering, biracial wife of the “mad king” George III.
Persuasion is a distinctly romantic modern comedy in tone – but how much does historical accuracy matter?
Although a Grammy win for a TikTok musical was a first, musical theatre has always circulated through networks of media, popular culture and fandom.
While Netflix’s Bridgerton is both incredibly romantic and erotic, the reality is it’s estimated 1in 5 people in the Regency period in London had syphilis and other STIs.
From editors looking to ‘expose the false art of life’ to others taking up the cause of the marginalised, writers went anonymous to share their uncomfortable truths.
Romance readers would be familiar with the idea of romantic serialisation - now, Netflix’s Bridgerton brings the format to television, which is why season 1’s Duke of Hastings is nowhere to be seen.
Depicted as a restrictive and painful undergarment, the corset is often depicted as a symbol of women’s oppression in period dramas.
The Regency period was full of gossip and scandal, something Bridgerton gets right. However, it leaves out the period’s grim record on slavery.
Romantic relationships are complex, but a foundation of friendship can help couples overcome their issues.
‘Bridgerton’ alludes to and obscures social, racial and political tensions in England’s Regency era, the extraordinary decade that marks the dawn of the modern world.
Romance fiction has long been overlooked for TV adaptations – the success of Bridgerton proves how short sighted that is.
Top contributors
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Senior Lecturer in Writing, Literature and Culture, Deakin University
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Adjunct Senior Lecturer, University of Southern Queensland and Senior Lecturer, RMIT University
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British Academy Global Professor, Queen's University, Ontario
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Associate Professor, Fashion History, De Montfort University
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Research associate in material and visual cultures of 18th-century Britain, University of York
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Lecturer, Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies, Deakin University
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Associate Professor in 18th-century Literature, York St John University
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Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University
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Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Melbourne
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PhD, Paratexts in Genre Fiction, The University of Queensland
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Lecturer in History, The Open University
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Professor of English, City University of New York
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Dean of the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design and Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies, York University, Canada
