Domestic Abuse and Violence in the Works of Nora Roberts

ŠTEFANSKÁ, Pavla. Domestic Abuse and Violence in the Works of Nora Roberts. In 2015 Popular Culture & American Culture Association National Conference, 1.-4. 4. 2015, New Orleans, Los Angeles, USA. 2015.

Basic information

• Original name: Domestic Abuse and Violence in the Works of Nora Roberts
• Authors: ŠTEFANSKÁ, Pavla (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: 2015 Popular Culture & American Culture Association National Conference, 1.-4. 4. 2015, New Orleans, Los Angeles, USA, 2015.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: 60206 Specific literatures
• Country of publisher: United States of America
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14210/15:00085523
• Organization unit: Faculty of Arts
• Keywords in English: Nora Roberts; popular romance; domestic violence
• Tags: rivok

Abstract

Love overcomes everything. Everything is fair in love and war. There is a fine line between love and hate. These and similar sayings may evoke an impression that there is a close connection between love and violence. Apart from that, they also represent some of the beliefs which permeate western culture's ideas of love and relationships. As people have the tendency to accept these sayings at their face value and rarely question where these ideas come from and how they affect their behavior, they seldom realize that these beliefs pose a potential threat to their intimate relationships. Based on the article by Julia T. Wood "The Normalization of Violence in Heterosexual Relationships: Women's Narratives of Love and Violence" in which she cites western gender and romance narratives as responsible for the high number of women who stay with abusive partners, this paper examines several novels by Nora Roberts, one of the most popular romance writers of our time, in which the author uses domestic abuse in hero's or heroine's past as a barrier which stands in the way of their HEA. The paper explores whether Roberts' portrayal of the domestic violence corresponds to the narrative categories proposed by Wood, and is looking in more detail at the ways in which the after effects of the trauma caused by the abuse are dealt with in terms of reclaiming one's own identity and re-establishing oneself not only within the narrative of a successful romantic relationship, but also within the much wider narrative of one's place in community and society, to show that are differences at Roberts' descriptions which mirror the changing trends in society and the de-tabooing of the issue of domestic abuse in the last thirty years.

Links

• MUNI/A/1246/2014, interní kód MU: Name: Nové směry v anglofonním jazykovědném a literárním výzkumu III (Acronym: NDALLR3)

Investor: Masaryk University, Category A