{"id":18396,"date":"2013-10-14T17:09:55","date_gmt":"2013-10-14T21:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=18396"},"modified":"2013-12-05T14:04:42","modified_gmt":"2013-12-05T19:04:42","slug":"amish-bonnet-rippers-examined-in-alumnas-book-published-by-johns-hopkins-university-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2013\/amish-bonnet-rippers-examined-in-alumnas-book-published-by-johns-hopkins-university-press\/","title":{"rendered":"Amish \u201cbonnet rippers\u201d examined in alumna\u2019s book, published by Johns Hopkins University Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amish \u201cbonnet rippers\u201d have become massively popular in the past decade, Valerie Weaver-Zercher told an audience of fellow-alumni and faculty during Homecoming 2013<\/a> at Eastern Mennonite University, Oct. 11-13.<\/p>\n

A new Amish romance is published about every four days, with at least 86 released in 2012, said Weaver-Zercher at a Saturday morning talk sponsored by EMU’s language and literature department<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She herself had never read an \u201cAmish romance\u201d until Johns Hopkins University Press approached Weaver-Zercher, suggesting she investigate this burgeoning market. That led to Weaver-Zercher\u2019s first published book, Thrill of the Chaste: The Allure of Amish Romance Novels<\/em> (2013)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No explicit sexual description<\/h3>\n

Even within the Anabaptist world, the books are widely read, despite their questionable authenticity. Weaver-Zercher, a \u201994 grad who majored in English<\/a>, mostly focused on why people are reading this genre, rather than delving deeply into the books’ accuracy or literary quality.<\/p>\n

She interviewed several Amish romance authors and numerous readers \u2013 mostly non-Amish, evangelical women \u2013 who cited two basic appeals of the books: evocation of \u201ca slow and simple life,\u201d and \u201ca clean read\u201d (i.e., no sexual explicitness).<\/p>\n

Her audience laughed when Weaver-Zercher elaborated that a love scene within the genre \u201cmight be some romantic glances over a pot pie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the Amish comprise only one-tenth of 1 percent of the U.S. population, the genre is well-covered in the mainstream media, including a recent Wall Street Journal<\/em> article by Weaver-Zercher<\/a>, who is also managing editor at Herald Press<\/a> and a contributing editor for Sojourners<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At her presentation, several alumni, whose student years dated from the 1950s to the 2000s, named as a favorite the recently reprinted Rosanna of the Amish<\/em> by Joseph W. Yoder<\/a>, a Mennonite author who penned a semi-fictional account of his mother, first published in 1940.<\/p>\n

One million book sales, plus TV dramatization<\/h3>\n

Weaver-Zercher noted the first commercially successful contemporary Anabaptist-themed romance, Beverly Lewis\u2019 1997 The Shunning<\/a><\/em>, published by Bethany House and dramatized on television, has sold over a million copies. Its heroine endures ostracism after finding she was adopted.<\/p>\n

Lewis, who based the character on her Mennonite grandmother, ranks with Wanda Brunstetter and Cindy Woodsmall among the genre\u2019s top three authors, who together have sold more than 24 million books. Yet only one current Amish romance author, Linda Byler, is Amish or Old Order Mennonite (the two branches of Anabaptists share more similarities than differences) \u2013 which Weaver-Zercher notes engenders skepticism about the field\u2019s authenticity.<\/p>\n

The genre\u2019s female protagonists tend to be virgins or young wives; the men, earnest and sensitive, Weaver-Zercher notes. At least four authors are men, and Weaver-Zercher found an elderly, Oklahoma Mennonite farmer who has read 90 Amish romances.<\/p>\n

In her Wall Street Journal<\/em> article<\/a>, Weaver-Zercher said some authors blend \u201ca divine love story\u201d with the earthly one. She cited a sentence in Brunstetter’s The Hope Chest<\/em> in which a young woman, being kissed, finds herself \u201creveling in God’s glory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gentle mysteries tucked in<\/h3>\n

\u201cSome authors add gentle mysteries along with the romance narrative,\u201d said Weaver-Zercher. Byler\u2019s series, Lancaster Burning<\/em>, portrays a community plagued by arson.<\/p>\n

Weaver-Zercher finds \u201cdistinctive styles\u201d among some authors, unlike the formulaic products of some mainstream romance publishing houses. However, they follow parameters common to \u201cChristian fiction\u201d \u2013 although a \u201cfalse hero\u201d sometimes appears, endings are always happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018thrill of the chaste\u2019 may be rooted in the broader idea of moral innocence \u2013 a rejection of the mass culture,\u201d said Weaver-Zercher.<\/p>\n

She suggested the novels exemplify a \u201cpurity culture\u201d in reaction to what Pamela Paul\u2019s book Pornified<\/em> terms today\u2019s mass culture. They may also, Weaver-Zercher suggested, be seen as \u201ca Christian version of “The Way We Never Were,\u201d referring to the title of an analysis of the American family by Stephanie Coontz.<\/p>\n

Pointing to what French theorist Gilles Lipovetsky has labeled \u201chypermodernity\u201d \u2013 a rushed, materialistic, technology-dominated culture \u2013 Weaver-Zercher added with a smile that the books give readers \u201ca temporary vacation from hypermodernity, even when they read them on Kindles or Nooks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ironically, however, she noted Amish romances are \u201csituated smack-dab in hypermodern publishing models.\u201d She pointed to Christian publishers getting bought up by big houses (including HarperCollins, now owned by Rupert Murdoch), and the large stock of the romances in such stores as WalMart.<\/p>\n

Part of commercialization of Amish phenomena?<\/h3>\n

Given those dynamics, she says, \u201cIt is likely that not everyone is amused.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weaver-Zercher\u2019s audience mentioned other commercial Amish-related phenomena, ranging from the \u201cAmish Mafia\u201d reality show, to \u201cAmish vampire\u201d novels, to bestseller Danielle Steel\u2019s new venture into the setting.<\/p>\n

Audience member Shirley Hershey Showalter, a 1970 EMU graduate, suggested Amish romances appeal to \u201cnostalgia for the rural life in general.\u201d Showalter, former president of Goshen College, recently published Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

At Herald Press, Weaver-Zercher edited a soon-to-be-released book which she terms \u201chistorical-romance fiction.\u201d Jacob\u2019s Choice<\/em> by Ervin R. Stutzman, former dean of Eastern Mennonite Seminary<\/a> and current executive director of Mennonite Church USA<\/a>, deals with the life of Amish farmer Jacob Hochstetler, whose family was massacred during the French and Indian War. She says Stutzman, who was raised Amish but is now a modern-living Mennonite, did meticulous research and \u201cstays very true to details, but adds fictional elements to make the narrative read like a novel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amish \u201cbonnet rippers\u201d have become massively popular in the past decade, Valerie Weaver-Zercher told an audience of fellow-alumni and faculty during Homecoming 2013 at Eastern Mennonite University, Oct. 11-13. A ... read more about Amish \u201cbonnet rippers\u201d examined in alumna\u2019s book, published by Johns Hopkins University Press<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":18397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,14184,60],"tags":[10602,6872,15243,14440],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-18396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-campus-guests","category-homecoming","tag-english","tag-ervin-r-stutzman","tag-shirley-h-showalter","tag-valerie-weaver-zercher"],"yoast_head":"\nAmish \u201cbonnet rippers\u201d examined in alumna\u2019s book, published by Johns Hopkins University Press - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2013\/amish-bonnet-rippers-examined-in-alumnas-book-published-by-johns-hopkins-university-press\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Amish \u201cbonnet rippers\u201d examined in alumna\u2019s book, published by Johns Hopkins University Press - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Amish \u201cbonnet rippers\u201d have become massively popular in the past decade, Valerie Weaver-Zercher told an audience of fellow-alumni and faculty during Homecoming 2013 at Eastern Mennonite University, Oct. 11-13. 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