Paper Title
Exploring The Benefit And Significance Of Reading Hausa Popular Romance Genre: A Thematic Analysis

Abstract
This paper investigates the women readers of Hausa romance novels produce in Kano state northern Nigeria of West Africa. The fact the genre has been neglected, underestimated and faced a lot of criticism and accusation from popular romance scholars, literary stakeholders, social critics feminist literary scholars around the globe.Therefore, little research on the benefits and significance has not been carried out so far. Moreover, the study employed a qualitative approach using a purposive sampling strategy of selecting 8 women readers. The objectives of the study were (a) to identify the benefits of readership of the genre (b) to examine the significance of the genre in the heart of its readers particularly women. Data was collected through face to face interviews with selected readers who agreed to participate in the study. The interviews sessions took approximately 30-40 minutes for each participant responses were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim.The results revealed that romance genre readership played a vital roles in addressing gender issues and the transformation of their female identity, entertainment, social status, lifestyle choices, personal freedom and cultural consumption in the global contemporary societies. Keywords - Hausa romance genre, Women readers, Face to face interviews, Thematic analysis, Nigeria.