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Romances date back to the creation of stories. Although the definition of the genre has changed in time from the Ancient Greeks to the Bildungsromans,to the 19th century and todays courtship novels, both scholarship and widely-held attitudes towards romance has remained fixedly and prioritized only the universality, unoriginality, and continuity of romance fiction instead of its sociocultural effect of promoting positive ideals like female empowerment. The portrayal of women in social roles has been in a state of constant change including their relationship with and relation to men. This book explores only medieval historical romance fictions and their changes through the course of the time. I examine three medieval romances contentWalter Scotts Ivanhoe 1920, Kathleen Woodowiss The Wolf and the Dove 1974, and Amanda Quicks Mystique 1995-- written in different time periods based on content analysis using Anthony Giddenss 1992 theories of intimacy. In addition, it will address romance novels views about sex, gender and love roles.
