Rewriting the Victorians

"Rewriting the Victorians" is a collection of essays both feminist and historical which analyzes power relations between men and women in the Victorian period. This volume is the first to reshape Victorian studies from the perspective of the postmodern return to history and is variously influenced by Marxism, sociology, anthropology and post-structuralist anthropology. The contributors negotiate the intersection between history, gender, and poststructuralist theories of language and subjectivity. They analyze the struggle for legitimacy and recognition in Victorian institutions and the struggle over meanings in ideological representation of the gendered subject in texts. Contributors cover diverse topics, including Victorian ideologies of motherhood, the male gaze, and the cult of the male child genius in narrative painting, the press, and Victorian women and the French Revolution, discussing both well-known and less familiar Victorian texts. This book should be of interest to undergraduates and academics in English literature, history, women's studies, gender studies and cultural studies.