| Many theorists commented that pulp-literature is on the contrary of classic or"high"works. Popular romances are even devoid of literary merits since they display anything but women's fantasy of love and subject matter of marriage. Yet others insist that the popularity of pulp-literature deserves better and more profound evaluation. To achieve a profound understanding of pulp-literature, many scholars suggest a combination of formulaic analysis and cultural analysis. The same approach can be applied to the evaluation of popular romance.Stimulated by the theory (formulaic-and-cultural analysis), the present thesis deploys a study on Act of Will to show the dialectic of artistic genre and her-story cultural representation. This contributes to explore clues to feminst concerns in popular romance and verify its impact on female readers. The study has been divided into five parts. Part One is the introduction, in which the author and her book Act of Will are roughly introduced. Part Two brings in theories of pulp-culture and pulp-literature. Part Three comments on formula romance and female interpretation in three respects: popularity of romance fiction with formula; yoke and paradox of domesticity and femininity; lasting and elapsing love. Part Four focuses on cultural reflection of popular romance, in which suffragette movement and women's pursuit of work are shed light on. Part Five tends to make a conclusion of romance values, both on the side of popular romance fictions and that of romance reading. However, the reading process has always remained dynamic and open to change, so that popular romances mushrooming at present day need more serious recognition and constant articulation. Through the romance fiction Act of Will, female consciousness and romance readers'resonance is being explored in this thesis.
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