Forget Escapism, I Read for the Badass Heroines

Authors

Camille Norman, Villanova University

Abstract

"Forget Escapism, I Read for the Badass Heroines" is a personal narrative exploring female entrapment in love stories and marriage plots. Through the 21st-century adventure of Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, the author recognizes the value of female representation in stories where romance takes the role of a mere subplot. In doing so, the author rebuilds her relationship with postmodern female archetypes by reanalyzing 18th-century Catherine Earnshaw from Wuthering Heights and sympathizing with her proto-feminist attributes. Far from a pessimistic rejection of romance stories, this essay calls for a "yes, and..." approach to female representation in a broader range of genres.

Recommended Citation

Norman, Camille (2023) "Forget Escapism, I Read for the Badass Heroines," RhetTech: Vol. 5, Article 6.
Available at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/rhettech/vol5/iss1/6