Thesis
Sunshine of Your Love: A Power-Balanced Grumpy Sunshine Romantic Comedy That Meets Audience Expectations
University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Master of Creative Arts, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
2024
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25907/00891
Abstract
It appears to be increasingly common for bestselling romance novels featuring a heterosexual couple to include an imbalanced power dynamic in the male’s favour. In romantic comedy, a billionaire boss and his female assistant are typical. In the wider romance genre, it can be a mafia boss and his forced bride – or even male aliens arriving on earth and overpowering human women. Male characters are designed with greater wealth, education, and occupational status than the female, and stories depict scenes shifting power to the male. With romance novels comprising almost a quarter of the entire US fiction market – and with an 82% female demographic – a large portion of women are purchasing stories containing a dynamic portraying their gender as powerless. Sunshine of Your Love was written to illustrate how a romantic comedy novel can include expected elements of a commercial product whilst challenging the status quo. Popular tropes including ‘grumpy sunshine’ and ‘fake dating’ are used to drive the story, whilst cover design, publishing conventions, and marketing all follow current market trends to reach a target audience. However, to challenge the prevalence of male characters possessing greater power, the male and female were explicitly designed with equal wealth, education, and occupational status – and the shift in power between the leads was balanced across the story.
Details
- Title
- Sunshine of Your Love: A Power-Balanced Grumpy Sunshine Romantic Comedy That Meets Audience Expectations
- Authors
- Kirsty Maclachlan - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Business and Creative Industries
- Contributors
- Paul Williams (Principal Supervisor) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Sustainability Research Cluster
- Awarding institution
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- Degree awarded
- Master of Creative Arts
- Publisher
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- DOI
- 10.25907/00891
- Grant note
- This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Business and Creative Industries; Healthy Ageing Research Cluster
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991093498902621
- Output Type
- Thesis
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