"Chick Lit: The Genre We Love to Hate"

Brown Bag Book Talk by ShaunAnne Tangney
March 13-Thursday-Noon-Olson Library, Lower Level

In 1996 Helen Fielding published Bridget Jones’ Diary in the UK and in 1997 Candace Bushnell published Sex and the City in the US. These two novels are considered the progenitors of the genre "Chick Lit," a genre about which there has been no small amount of controversy. Simultaneously hailed as meaningful, touching, and wickedly funny and condemned as mind-numbing, formulaic, and clichéd, Chick Lit has become a genre that cannot be ignored. It is not, however, a phenomenon of the late twentieth century. In one version or another, Chick Lit has been popular in America for more than 200 years, and as popular as it has been, it has also been widely denounced by male writers and critics and feminists alike. In her presentation, Tangney will explore the long history of Chick Lit in America, and its reception by readers and critics. She will also propose an innovative, if not more genuine, feminist reading of Chick Lit, in an attempt not necessarily to defend the genre, but to explore what it tells us about the culture we live in.

The book talk will be held on the lower level of Olson Library. Attendees are welcome to bring their lunch with them; dessert will be provided.

ShaunAnne Tangney
ShaunAnne Tangney, PhD, is Associate Professor of English at Minot State University where she teaches American literature, critical theory, and creative writing. Her scholarly interests include apocalyptic American literature, literature of the American west and of the Great Plains, the poet Robinson Jeffers, and the novelist Kate Braverman. She is also a poet who has published her work in the US, the UK, and Australia. She is currently working to develop a new program at MSU called Studies in Community and Environment which will enable students to study and engage with issues of ecological and communal concern.