By Piper Daleiden, a Junior at Hope College
Photos: Haniah Kring, a Senior at Hope College
Almost every reader has experienced the disappointment of reaching the end of a book just to feel dissatisfied with the conclusion. But what causes these novels to be unfulfilling? Why do they fail to meet our expectations?
On Thursday, October 21, 2021, Eleanor Bourg Nicholson and Rhonda Ortiz examined this topic in their presentation “Werewolves and Fainting Damsels: The Genius and Challenges of Genre Fiction,” hosted by the Saint Benedict Institute. Nicholson is an editor, educator, and the author of the Gothic novels A Bloody Habit and Brother Wolf. Ortiz is the author of the historical romance novel In Pieces. She is also a nonfiction writer and the founding editor of Chrism Press.
Ortiz began by defining the terms that she and Nicholson would return to throughout their presentation. “Genre” refers to a story’s content and overall form, and “genre conventions” are elements of a specific genre that are necessary to tell the story well. “Tropes” are characters, settings, premises, and plot devices that occur often in a genre but are not mandatory. Ortiz emphasized that it is impossible to write or find a story without tropes. However, although tropes and conventions might be common, they are not necessarily bad. “Conventions and obligatory scenes are form, not formulas, and tropes are tools, not clichés,” explained Ortiz. These components of a genre become well known for a reason: they reflect universal truths about the human story. For example, the “Who done it?” trope in detective fiction points to man’s natural inclination to search for truth. Overall, tropes allow readers to tap into something greater than themselves.
Nicholson held a magnifying glass over the progression of tropes and conventions in mystery and detective fiction. This genre relies on conventions so the reader will be satisfied at the conclusion of the story. Ronald Knox, a Catholic priest and author, summarized these conventions in his “Ten Commandments of Detective Fiction.” One of his rules is that the criminal needs to be mentioned in the early part of the story. However, Knox’s “Ten Commandments” proved to be controversial when other prominent authors, including Agatha Christie, formed the Detection Club with the goal of breaking Knox’s rules. While some of the Detection Club’s stories were successful, others struggled to please the readers without Knox’s conventions. Nicholson concluded that tropes in detective fiction should be tastefully used so that the reader is surprised but not incredulous about the identity of the culprit.
Ortiz flipped to a new chapter to explore tropes in romance fiction. The love story is extremely popular, even in genres outside of romance. Ortiz attributed this popularity to humanity’s natural desire to love and be loved, which stems from the romance between God and man. Within romance fiction, the conventions and obligatory scenes also find their roots in man’s relationship with God. For example, the trope of a damsel in distress reveals humanity’s deep need for a savior. Ortiz also discussed the challenges of writing with these tropes. In her recently released novel, she had to find a balance between using the damsel in distress trope and respecting the historical setting, characters, and plot. For Ortiz, this meant allowing her protagonist to be saved in a way that both followed the conventions of the romance genre and gave her protagonist independence.
Nicholson introduced the gothic genre, beginning with its historical context. This genre was a reaction to the Age of Reason, and even today, it encourages readers to consider what is beyond logic and empirical science. Gothic literature comes with its own set of tropes and conventions, and Nicholson stressed that there needs to be a sense that good can triumph in the end. Despite this genre’s darker themes and supernatural aspects, its tropes still reveal universal truths about man, especially by exposing the protagonist’s inner corruption and need for grace. Nicholson added that historically, gothic fiction has been grounded in anti-Catholicism. This can be seen in some of its tropes, such as “scary papists.” As a Catholic author in this genre, Nicholson balances these conventions by using tropes to “torture” her characters. In her novels, this might look like self-growth in the protagonist after having to rely on Catholic figures for help.
While stories of vampires and werewolves might be very different from an early American romance, Nicholson and Ortiz agreed that tropes and conventions can be artfully used to convey human universals and lead to a fulfilling conclusion, regardless of genre. Overall, they encouraged authors and readers alike to “unknot” a genre to explore the components of a satisfying story.
This event was co-sponsored by the Hope College Religion department and the Corpus Christi Foundation.