ABSTRACT
In a 2012 interview with Decca Aitkenhead for the Guardian, Sophie Kinsella said: “[W]hen I’m asked to describe what I do, I say I write romantic comedies, cos that’s what I feel they are (sic)” (n.pag.). Many of her fellow chick-lit writers also prefer the term romantic comedy, not just to evade a condescending label but because the generic moniker “comedy” describes the core quality of chick-lit narratives. If the paratexts of chick lit - e.g. the blurbs and praise on the book covers - say anything about the characteristic features of the novels, they usually refer to their capacity to evoke laughter. Indeed, being funny is a precondition for the aspiring writers of the genre, as chick-lit author Sarah Mlynowski and chick-lit editor Farrin Jacobs claim in their light-hearted how-to guide See Jane Write – A Girl’s Guide to Writing Chick lit (2006). The book is written in the chatty, conversational tone that is common to many chick-lit novels. In its fourth chapter, Mlynowski and Jacobs introduce an extended metaphor on “How Writing Chick Lit is Like Dating”, for which they put together a list of rules for the composition of a chick-lit novel.1 The role of humour is high on the list, second only to the dictum “Be true to yourself” (40):
Rule #2: Always have your wit about you
Sense of humour is key – in chick lit and in the wonderful world of dating. We’re not saying you have to be a comedian and that you need to generate a laugh a minute, but if you’ve got no funny in you, you might want to reconsider this whole thing. The most important part of using humour to your advantage is you have to have a sense of humour about yourself. Same goes for a date: If you take yourself too seriously, you might be taking yourself out of the game. Dating should be fun (when it’s not torture or, at best, mind-bendingly awkward), and so should the chick lit experience (sic). (41)
A large part of the marketability of the chick-lit phenomenon is certainly due to its extensive use of humour and the accompanying notion that chick
lit is “fun”. Arguably, humour is the genre’s most distinct feature in comparison with other commercial women’s writing. It is essential to the narrative voice, and, as Cathy Yardley emphasizes, it is one of the major differences between chick lit and its romantic predecessors in the Harlequin/Mills and Boon vein:
[I]t’s important to note that the use of the first person showed a remarkable break from the romance and women’s fiction that preceded chick lit. The conversational tone, the humour, and the protagonist’s relative self-absorption were a radical departure. (74)
The chick-lit formula, however, does not necessarily ask for a first-person narrator, as Yardley reassures endeavouring chick-lit writers in her guidebook Will Write for Shoes – How to Write a Chick lit Novel (74). Nevertheless, most of the novels that are by now classics of the genre use this narrative technique, so that the confessional, humorous voice has definitely become a signature style for chick lit – for authors as well as for those marketing chick lit as a brand: if it is not funny, it is not chick lit.
