Fourth Wing x the Author Function
Material Girls
Rehak Hannah
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2025
⏱️ 75 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There are no book spoilers in this episode!
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (Entangled Publishing) was an undeniable hit in the world of romantasy fiction. But in a saturated market, how did Fourth Wing rise to such fame?
To get to the bottom of this book's popularity, resident publishing expert, Hannah explains how Entangled's market-driven approach to publishing and reader engagement set Yarros up for a certain kind of success. They then dig into the complexities of authorship and copyright in a rapidly evolving literary landscape — particularly in genres like romance and fantasy (i.e. genres that consistently play with and rely on tropes). To add some much-needed theory to the mix, Hannah draws on Foucault to consider "authorship" and the "the author function."
At the end of the episode, Hannah offers a thesis about authorship, originality and modern publishing that is not to be missed!
If you liked this conversation, be sure to check out these related episodes:
Bridgerton x Reading the Romance
The Night Circus x Reading Ecosystems
To learn more about Material Girls, head to our Instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease! Or check out our website ohwitchplease.ca. We'll be back in two weeks with a Material Concerns episode, but until then, go check out all the other content we have on our Patreon at Patreon.com/ohwitchplease! Patreon is how we produce the show and pay our team! Thanks again to all of you who have already made the leap to join us there!
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Material Girls is a show that aims to make sense of the zeitgeist through materialist critique* and critical theory! Each episode looks at a unique object of study (something popular now or from back in the day) and over the course of three distinct segments, Hannah and Marcelle apply their academic expertise to the topic at hand.
*Materialist Critique is, at its simplest possible level, a form of cultural critique – that is, scholarly engagement with a cultural text of some kind – that is interested in modes of production, moments of reception, and the historical and ideological contexts for both. Materialist critique is really interested in the question of why a particular cultural work or practice emerged at a particular moment.
Music Credits:
“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey listeners, Marcel here. |
| 0:07.1 | You might have heard that we have a Patreon. |
| 0:10.1 | And, you know, Hannah and Coach and I, we can talk for days about how great it is. |
| 0:15.0 | But we thought maybe you might be more convinced by listening to the Patreon supporters explain what they love about the Patreon themselves. |
| 0:25.5 | So, hey, coach, you got some tape? Can you roll it? |
| 0:29.2 | Hi, this is Carolyn, also known as Kaluy or Kalea 99, from Raleigh, North Carolina. |
| 0:42.4 | I've been a listener of various Witch Please podcasts for years because they bring so much joy and learning into my life. |
| 0:47.5 | What I've learned has unquestionably helped shape how I think about the world around me. |
| 0:53.8 | And I'm a Patreon supporter because I value what Witch Please brings into my life. |
| 1:00.5 | And, you know, the watchalongs and life tapings are a lot of fun too. |
| 1:04.6 | Help us sustain the show and unlock hours of perks by heading to patreon.com slash oh which please. Oh I need a new mind, I need a new brain |
| 1:41.3 | I want to take a ride on a mini train. |
| 1:45.4 | You can have it all at the show. |
| 1:49.0 | Hey. |
| 1:53.2 | Hello and welcome to Material Girls, a pop culture podcast that uses critical theory to understand the zeitgeist. |
| 2:03.2 | I'm Marcel Cosman. And I'm Hannah McGregor. And first off, we just have to start this episode by noting that Marcel is a |
| 2:08.9 | sickie. I have been sick for so long. I can't remember what it was like to be well. We're going to be so |
| 2:15.9 | nice to Marcel on this episode. |
| 2:23.5 | That's all I ask. So this week, Marcel, we are finally dipping our toes into the sexy world of romantasy. But of course, as it's typical to us, we will be taking a decidedly materialist |
| 2:31.0 | approach to the conversation. But before we do that, Marcel, I would like to know where |
| 2:36.5 | you are at personally in your Romantici journey. Are you reading any sexy fairy books or what? |
| 2:43.2 | I'm reading the Akotar books for the uninitiated. It's a court of thorns and roses. That's the |
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