Popular romance fiction is the most prolific and profitable popular genre globally, a robust counter to narratives in the media and academia about the death of the book. Like all genres of fiction, romance has multiple dimensions. Popular romance is a sector of the publishing industry, a social formation, and a body of texts. To date, research has focused overwhelmingly on the third dimension, largely because of the dominance of the conceptual frameworks and analytical techniques of literary critics. To account for the genre’s size and growth, its dynamism and diversity, popular romance studies must not privilege a single academic discipline. Instead, the study of romance—and of popular fiction more broadly — should straddle literary and cultural studies (Butter 201), as well as publishing studies and book history. This article proposes a new theoretical framework for the study of popular fiction. It introduces the central concept of a "genre world," an adaptation of sociologist Howard S. Becker's definition of an "art world," and models the use of this concept through three interview‐based case studies that reveal key characteristics of popular romance in twenty‐first century Australia. First, the genre world is both national and international. It is attuned to these different contexts, particularly the permeable boundary between small and large publishing centers. Second, the genre world is highly professionalized, oriented toward the accumulation of what we call "genre competence." Popular fiction is a sector of the broader literary field that operates explicitly as a training ground for developing the knowledge and skills required by its members. Third, the romance genre world is built on a dynamic real‐and‐imagined sociality; therefore, people from its past and from its imagined storyworlds are routinely included in accounts of the romance community. The concept of the "genre world" and the methods it invites—reading the texts alongside interviews with authors and intermediaries and with the support of publishing data—thus yield new insights and a fuller, richer understanding of how genre fiction operates.

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流派世界和流行小说：21 世纪澳大利亚浪漫故事

流行言情小说是全球最多产和利润最高的流行类型，有力地反驳了媒体和学术界关于这本书死亡的叙述。像所有类型的小说一样，浪漫有多个维度。流行浪漫是出版业的一个部门，一种社会形态，一种文本体。迄今为止，研究主要集中在第三维度，主要是因为文学批评家的概念框架和分析技术占主导地位。考虑到这一流派的规模和增长、其活力和多样性，流行言情研究绝不能偏袒某一学科。相反，对浪漫的研究——以及更广泛的通俗小说——应该跨越文学和文化研究（Butter 201），以及出版研究和书史。本文为通俗小说研究提出了一个新的理论框架。它引入了“流派世界”的中心概念，改编自社会学家 Howard S. Becker 对“艺术世界”的定义，并通过三个基于访谈的案例研究来模拟这一概念的使用，这些案例研究揭示了流行浪漫的关键特征二十一世纪的澳大利亚。首先，流派世界既是国内的，也是国际的。它适应了这些不同的环境，尤其是小型和大型出版中心之间的可渗透边界。其次，流派世界是高度专业化的，以积累我们所谓的“流派能力”为导向。通俗小说是更广泛的文学领域的一个部门，它明确地作为发展其成员所需的知识和技能的训练场。第三，浪漫类型的世界建立在一个动态的现实和想象的社会之上；因此，来自过去和想象中的故事世界的人们经常被包含在浪漫社区的描述中。“流派世界”的概念及其所采用的方法——在与作者和中间人访谈的同时阅读文本以及在出版数据的支持下——从而产生新的见解，并对流派小说的运作方式产生更全面、更丰富的理解。来自过去和想象中的故事世界的人们经常被包含在浪漫社区的描述中。“流派世界”的概念及其所采用的方法——在与作者和中间人访谈的同时阅读文本以及在出版数据的支持下——从而产生新的见解，并对流派小说的运作方式产生更全面、更丰富的理解。来自过去和想象中的故事世界的人们经常被包含在浪漫社区的描述中。“流派世界”的概念及其所采用的方法——在与作者和中间人访谈的同时阅读文本以及在出版数据的支持下——从而产生新的见解，并对流派小说的运作方式产生更全面、更丰富的理解。