Queer Others in Victorian Gothic: Transgressing Monstrosity

Gothic Literary Studies

by Ardel Haefele-Thomas

In Queer Others in Victorian Gothic, Ardel Haefele-Thomas examines a number of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Gothic novels, short stories, and films through the lens of queer cultural studies. In some of these works, as Haefele-Thomas demonstrates, the author or filmmaker fully intended to explore the complicated landscape of queer sexuality and gender identity. In most, however, the author or filmmaker’s intentions are unclear. Haefele-Thomas takes on these works, first employing “queer” in its nineteenth-century historical context, to point to their generally weird, odd, or ill components. She then explores them using “queer” in the complex and politically charged context from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Haefele-Thomas argues that part of what makes these texts Gothic are their covert queer content. She also reveals that queer theory—lacking the gender specificity found in gay and lesbian theories and historiographies—allows room to convey gender, sexuality, race, class, and familial structures in a specific state of anti-categorization. Queers Others in Victorian Gothic will appeal to anyone interested in the intersection of gender, sexuality, and literary criticism.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Acknowledgements

1. Introduction
2. The Spinster and the Hijra: How Queers Save Heterosexual Marriage in Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White and The Moonstone
3. Escaping Heteronormativity: Queer Family Structures in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Lois the Witch and ’The Grey Woman’
4. Disintegrating Binaries, Disintegrating Bodies: Queer Imperial Transmogrification in H. Rider Haggard’s She
5. ’One does things abroad that one would not dream of doing in England’: Miscegenation and Queer Female Vampirism in J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla and Florence Marryat’s The Blood of the Vampire
6. In Defence of Her Queer Community: Vernon Lee’s Decoded Decadent Gothic

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Genres: Nonfiction, Gothic, Queer, LGBT, Horror, Literary Criticism, Victorian

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2012

Reviews

[Hannah Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t read every essay in this book,(just the ones that contained things I wanted to know), but I really enjoyed the ones I did! The author definitely is very readable and interesting. I highly recommend for students studying gothic literature.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

You will need to reread Carmilla, Dracula, and Frankenstein after reading these essays.

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short and entertaining application of Queer Theory to a number of seminal 19th century gothic texts. The author's erudite prose and readable style makes this a breeze readily sailed through. Notable works discussed include THE MOONSTONE and THE WOMAN IN WHITE by Wilkie Collins, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's CARMILLA, Florence Marryat's THE BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE, and the short fiction of Elizabeth Gaskell and Vernon Lee.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating insight into the Victorian Gothic, in particular The Woman and White and The Moonstone, but also texts by Elizabeth Gaskell and Bram Stoker. Read for Gothic in Literature & Film module and English Literature dissertation.

[Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

只读了女作家的部分。文本的分析相对比较浅，仅针对几位作家故事中主要角色和大体情节做了阐述，而且说实话感觉没有特别有新意的见解...有些论点对我来说并没有和作者的文本强关联。但主题自带的讨论还是很好的，几个世纪前女作家们在书写中反抗异性恋婚姻与家庭，在女性角色极有张力又暧昧不明的悸动中，摸索着同性间相处的微小情愫与多种可能。Vernon Lee在公开场合的各种创作与言行，对所在queer community的支持与认可倒是非常超前，在那个时代能有这样让她们秘密结社使用coded language交流的小团体，真是不幸中的幸运

[MadeliefJulia · Rating 4 out of 5]

gosh wat hou ik toch van m'n academische niches

[Helen Victoria Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is rare to read a work of literary criticism which is so consistently engaging and original. Though the first chapter, on Collins is a slow beginning, labouring rather hard to make its ultimately well-considered point, Haefele-Thomas's focus increases with every section.

I borrowed this book as research material for an essay on H. Rider Haggard. However, because it was sourced through Inter-Library loan, it sadly arrived late, and I had already taken my work in a different direction. Nonetheless, hating to leave a good book to waste, I read it. My intent was only to read the sections most relevant to my studies, but before I knew it, I had consumed the whole book. Perhaps it was just the additional free time of the Christmas holidays, but I wish all critical works were so engaging.

For anyone interested in the Victorian gothic, colonial history, queer theory and feminist literature, this book is an ideal text. It unites these aspects of 19th century fiction more successfully than most, in a convincing and accessible study of the liminal, repressed and subversive 'Other'.