Dr Anna Faktorovich

Gender Bias in Mystery and Romance Novel Publishing: Mimicking Masculinity and Femininity Dr Anna Faktorovich

Marc Notes: This title examines gender bias via the top two best-selling genres in modern fiction. It is a linguistic, literary stylistic, and structurally formalist analysis of the male and female 'sentences' in the genres that have the greatest gender divide: romances and mysteries. Biographical Note: Dr. Anna Faktorovich is the Director and Founder of the Anaphora Literary Press. Previously, she taught college English for three years at the Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and the Middle Georgia State College. She has a Ph. D. in English Literature and Criticism. She published two academic books with McFarland: Rebellion as Genre in the Novels of Scott, Dickens and Stevenson (2013) and The Formulas of Popular Fiction: Elements of Fantasy, Science Fiction, Romance, Religious and Mystery Novels. She also published widely in several other genres, including two poetry collections, Improvisational Arguments (Fomite Press, 2011) and Battle for Athens (Anaphora, 2012), a historical novel, The Romances of George Sand (2014), two fantasy novellas with Grim's Labyrinth Publishing, The Great Love of Queen Margaret, the Vampire (2014) and The Campaigns against the Olden: Kingdoms of Laruta (2014), and a self-illustrated children's book, The Sloths and I (Anaphora, 2013). She has been editing and writing for the independent, tri-annual Pennsylvania Literary Journal since 2009. She won the MLA Bibliography, Kentucky Historical Society and Brown University Military Collection fellowships. Publisher Marketing: "Gender Bias in Mystery and Romance Novel Publishing" examines gender bias from the perspective of readers, writers and publishers, with a focus on the top two best-selling genres in modern fiction. It is a linguistic, literary stylistic, and structurally formalist analysis of the male and female "sentences" in the genres that have the greatest gender divide: romances and mysteries. The analysis will search for the historical roots that solidified what many think of today as a "natural" division. Virginia Woolf called it the fabricated "feminine sentence," and other linguists have also identified clear sex-preferential differences in Anglo-American, Swedish and French novels. Do female mystery writers adopt a masculine voice when they write mysteries? Are female-penned mysteries structurally or linguistically different from their male competitors', and vice versa among male romance writers? The first part can be used as a textbook for gender stylistics, as it provides an in-depth review of prior research. The second part is an analysis of the results of a survey on readers' perception of gender in passages from literature. The last part is a linguistic and structural analysis of actual statistical differences between the novels in the two genres, considering the impact of the author's gender. "A must-read for a mystery author like me, but also for every man and woman interested in the way we interact because art mimics reality... Or is it just the opposite...: ): ) " -Bob Van Laerhoven, winner of the Hercule Poirot Prize "The data offered allows for concrete conclusions on questions gender linguists have been asking for several decades, such as the use of male active heroes and villains, but the diminishing of female characters to serve as passive victims or love interests in both popular romance and mystery genres." -David R. Slavitt, author of more than 100 critically acclaimed books Contributor Bio:  Lin, Emily Dr. Anna Faktorovich is the Director and Founder of the Anaphora Literary Press. Previously, she taught college English for three years at the Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and the Middle Georgia State College. She has a Ph. D. in English Literature and Criticism. She published two academic books with McFarland: Rebellion as Genre in the Novels of Scott, Dickens and Stevenson (2013) and The Formulas of Popular Fiction: Elements of Fantasy, Science Fiction, Romance, Religious and Mystery Novels. She also published widely in several other genres, including two poetry collections, Improvisational Arguments (Fomite Press, 2011) and Battle for Athens (Anaphora, 2012), a historical novel, The Romances of George Sand (2014), two fantasy novellas with Grim's Labyrinth Publishing, The Great Love of Queen Margaret, the Vampire (2014) and The Campaigns against the Olden: Kingdoms of Laruta (2014), and a self-illustrated children's book, The Sloths and I (Anaphora, 2013). She has been editing and writing for the independent, tri-annual Pennsylvania Literary Journal since 2009. She won the MLA Bibliography, Kentucky Historical Society and Brown University Military Collection fellowships.