[ecrea] CFP Shattering Releases: The Pleasures and Politics of Popular Erotic Fiction (edited collection)

CALL FOR PAPERS:
Shattering Releases: The Pleasures and Politics of Popular Erotic 
Fiction (edited collection)



“‘It’s taking all my self-control not to fuck you on the hood of this 
car, just to show you that you’re mine, and if I want to buy you a 
fucking car, I’ll buy you a fucking car,’ he growls.” (E.L. James, Fifty 
Shades of Grey)

“Her release was shattering, shocking her as her body seemed to fragment 
and dissolve, as the earth moved and colors burst all around her, 
through her, in her...” (Christine Feehan, Dark Magic)

“‘Listen, Rydstrom and I had a few bumps in the road. Our initial 
romance consisted of me chaining him in a dungeon and sexually 
tormenting him. And yet we worked past it.’”

(Kresley Cole, Shadow’s Claim)



The publication of EL James’ Fifty Shades of Grey in 2011 marks a 
particularly visible moment in what appears to be a proliferation of 
erotic fiction, written by and for women, since the end of the twentieth 
century. More than just an instance of a particular genre of fiction, 
Fifty Shades has spawned considerable discussion of the significance of 
‘women’s popular erotic fiction’ generally.

Shattering Releases seeks to explore this phenomenon, its social and 
textual origins and its attendant conceptual and political effects. In 
doing so, the book aims to examine the discursive regularities and 
popular debates framing the production and reception of women’s popular 
erotic fiction; the cultural anxieties and transformations such texts 
express; the ways in which they reinscribe and negotiate relations of 
gender, sexuality, race, and kinship; the ever-growing proliferation of 
subgenres, and their role in shaping popular ideas about romance and 
relationships, desire and the erotic; the ideological forces 
underpinning their development and visibility as both a ‘new’ and 
‘popular’ form.



We invite proposals for contributions to an edited collection of 
critical research on the cultural significance of ‘women’s popular 
erotic fiction’. Possible areas of research include (though are not 
limited to):

· The cultural work of the different subgenres (BDSM, paranormal 
romance, erotic crime fiction, ménage a trois, ‘neighbour from hell’, 
sex confessionals) and the ways of speaking about, categorising and 
marketing these texts.

· The rise of independently published online erotic fiction (production 
and consumption) and the discourses surrounding it.

· The continuities and departures of erotic fiction from its 
predecessors in romance fiction and chick lit, as well as those from 
more ‘respectable’ literary traditions.

· The role of popular erotic fiction in reinforcing and/or transgressing 
the hegemony of whiteness, heterosexuality, patriarchy, the family, etc.

· The role of this fiction in circumscribing an idea of ‘the West’, as 
well as the possibilities offered by non-western forms of popular erotic 
fiction.

· The pleasures of reader consumption and the discourses surrounding it.

· The function of romance in women’s erotic fiction.



Expressions of interest, including an abstract (250-300 words), a short 
author bio and list of recent publications, may be forwarded via email 
to the editors by 24 May, 2013. The anticipated due date for accepted 
contributions (6,500 –7,500) is 29 November, 2013.



Dr Kristen Phillips, Claire Trevenen, Curtin University (Bentley, 
Western Australia)
Contact email: (K.Phillips /at/ curtin.edu.au), (Claire.Trevenen /at/ curtin.edu.au)



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