chapter 11
Gendered readings Bella’s books and literary consumer culture Ann Steiner
The reader of Twilight is generally identified in the press and elsewhere as a girl in her teens who allows herself to become immersed in the narrative. Without any real knowledge of the multiple functions of literature among girls, the critical reception has dismissed Meyer’s novels as a gendered, passive, and escapist experience. Reading books is a cultural habit intricately intertwined with film- and televisionwatching and listening to music, and the gendered dismissal of the Twilight experience has failed to take into account the full complexity of these practices. Thus far, studies of Twilight’s readers have shown a more diverse picture, and this chapter analyses the discourse of the young female reader in contemporary culture and the book trade in general, and in the Twilight book series in particular. I will argue that Twilight offers advice and guidance on literature and reading, but also that these are instructions that contradict girls’ general reading practices in contemporary society. In the contemporary book trade, what can be termed ‘concept consumption’ is an important part of the creation and success of literary works directed at young adults, and the relationship between the industry and readers is analysed and situated in a wider context. The analysis of female, contemporary literary culture will start with Bella and her relationship to books and reading. Literature is used in the Twilight series in a number of ways: as intertexts; to explain the narrative; and, metafictionally, to elucidate what literature can do. I will go on to examine the reception of the Twilight series and general perceptions of the young, female reader today. The moral 195