Romantic Friendship in Victorian Literature (The Nineteenth Century Series)

Romantic Friendship in Victorian Literature (The Nineteenth Century Series)

by Carolyn W .dela L . Oulton (Author)

Synopsis

Carolyn Oulton recovers the strategies nineteenth-century authors used to justify the ideal of same-sex romantic friendship and the anxieties these strategies reveal. Informed by recent insights into the erotic potential of such relationships, but focused on romantic friendship as an independent and fully formulated ideal, Oulton departs from other critics who view romantic friendship as either nebulous and culturally naive or an invocation of homoerotic responsiveness. By considering both male and female friendships, Oulton uncovers surprising parallels between them in novels and poetry by authors such as Dickens, Tennyson, Disraeli, Charlotte BrontA , and Braddon. Oulton also examines conduct manuals, periodicals, and religious treatises, tracing developments from mid-century to the fin de siecle, when romantic friendship first came under serious attack. Her book is a persuasive challenge to those who view mid-Victorian England, existing in a state of blissful pre-Freudian innocence, as unproblematically accommodating of passionate same-sex relationships.

$53.70

Quantity

5 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 184
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 19 Oct 2016

ISBN 10: 1138259624
ISBN 13: 9781138259621

Author Bio
Carolyn W. de la L. Oulton is Senior Lecturer in English at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. She writes on Victorian literature and culture and is also the author of several volumes of poetry, including The Rain (2000), Left Past the Moon (2001), and Warned Against Unnecessary Journeys.