Queering the Spheres: Non-Normative Gender, Sexuality, and Family in Three Victorian Texts

<p>In my thesis, I use a queer theoretical lens to consider three Victorian texts, Hesba Stretton’s “The Ghost in the Clock Room,” Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market,” and J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla. I apply queer theory to locate these authors’ attempts to destabilize heteronormativity by depicting non-normative gender roles, sexualities, and families in texts that emphasize the Victorian ideology of separate spheres. Many scholars imagine the separation of spheres as simply relegating women to a domestic sphere that reinforced traditional values and restricted their power. However, these works demonstrate that opportunities for power and queer possibility exist within the home and family, or so-called domestic sphere. This thesis seeks to locate and celebrate these queer and transgressive possibilities.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis - Open Access

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year dc:date.available

2016

Author dc:creator

• Mihajlovic, Randi

Contributors dc:contributor

• Katherine Malone

• Carmilla
• Goblin Market
• Hesba Stretton
• queer theory
• The Ghost in the Clock Room
• Victorian family
• Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
• Literature in English, British Isles

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

en

Repository record dc:identifier

https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd/974

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:openprairie.sdstate.edu:etd-1977