The Danger of Romance

Romance has traditionally been dismissed by critics for failing to represent the world as it is, and yet it has been embraced by readers attracted to its distinctive depiction of reality. Given the pleasure it has afforded readers over the centuries, is it possible that it is expressing a truth unrecognized by realist genres? The Arthurian literature of the Middle Ages, Karen Sullivan argues, consistently ventriloquizes the criticisms that were being made of romance at the time and implicitly defends itself against those criticisms. The danger of romance shows that the conviction that ordinary reality is the only reality is itself an assumption, and one that can blind those who hold it to the extraordinary phenomena that exist around them, demonstrating that which is rare, ephemeral, and inexplicable is no less real than that which is commonplace, long-lasting, and easily accounted for. If romance continues to appeal to audiences today, whether in its Arthurian prototype or in its more recent incarnations, it is because it confirms the perception - or even the hope - of a beauty and truth in the world that realist genres deny.