Response to "Reading Reading the Romance"

This reading confused me at some parts. I don't quite understand the concept of "ethnographies of reading vs. textual interpretation," or the "preoedipal mother" and the "oedipal father." I comprehended something like grown women, particularly wives and mothers, lack a maternal nurture they once had from their mothers? It's no surprise that most of the romance readers were wives and mothers, but it did surprise me that they said it's a "declaration of their independence," because romance novels seem so stereotypically feminine. I do agree though that it addresses their needs and desires, and maybe even as far as Radway's claim of their dissatisfaction of their heterosexual options. I have noticed that the male hero always has a sensitive side and usually caters to the female heroine, which could be an escape for wives who live in the common stereotype of serving their husbands and families.