Shroud of shadow a creative work and study of the romantasy genre's legitmacy in academic discourse
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"As a young girl, I often escaped the pressures of schoolwork and friendship struggles by diving into the pages of Magic Treehouse, Harry Potter, and The Chronicles of Narnia--stories that transported me to the worlds where magic was real and good always triumphed over evil. I eventually grew into adulthood, balancing the demands of full-time work and family, leaving little room for the magic of books. Yet, as time passed, the longing for that sense of wonder resurfaced. In seeking that thrill once again, I discovered a genre that has recently captivated a large female audience: romantasy. A blend of romance and fantasy, this subgenre has surged in popularity, driving significant increases in book sales. Despite its growing readership, romantasy has yet to receive substantial academic attention. This paper aims to define romantasy and explore not only its popularity but also its legitimacy within the literary world. One definition of romantasy is "a subgenre of Fantasy [and Romance] that pairs a strong romantic subplot with a Fantasy main plot. The focus can skew toward the Fantasy plot with a significant minority of romantic elements, or it can balance fairly evenly between the two" (Sager). As with the traditional romance genre, the romantasy genre is primarily written for female-identifying readers and include romance tropes set within a fantasy world. Stories are told through the female lens and sometimes take on dual narrators with the love interest or other important main characters. Romantasy stories include some of the most famous romance tropes, such as enemies-to-lovers, and build on these foundations using fantasy tropes like found family and elemental magic. Like romance, romantasy stories also often include Happily Ever After (HEA) or Happily for Now (HFN) endings (Sager)." -- first page
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M.A.