This thesis examines the wealth of representations of same-sex desire throughout Dickens's literary career, deploying a combination of historicist, feminist and queer theory approaches to challenge the continued silencing of sexually subversive material in current Dickens studies. Without eliding their important differences the project explores both male and female homoeroticism, recognising such articulations as part of Dickens's wider exploration of the socially and sexually disenfranchised who could not be accommodated within the rigid parameters of a respectability exemplified by the institution of marriage. This thesis positions Dickens's fiction as central to queer literary history. Identifying key literary, historical and experiential sources for Dickens's acquisition of sexual knowledge, it is demonstrated that Dickens adapted culturally available representations of same-sex desire to develop influential strategies of homoerotic articulation. Chapter one explores factors that contribute to the received reading of Dickens's work as deeply conservative in terms of gender and sexuality through the case study of Miss Wade. She is retextualised through a recognition of the character's debt to existing models of female same-sex desire and analysis of her relationships' resonance with other female couples in the Dickens canon. The second chapter focuses on the idealisation of alternative patterns of living in Dickens's fiction. The celebration of male bachelorhood and attention to female resistances to marriage militate against critical conceptions of the Dickensian domestic ideal. Chapter three continues the interrogation of the familial ideal, contending that 'in-lawing' (the male homoerotic strategy of marrying a sister of the male favourite) was one of the major strategies through which Dickens and his contemporaries articulated, mediated and transferred same-sex desire. This identification of homocentric strategies demonstrates the fallacy of the dominant critical assumption that the homoerotic emerges most strongly in Dickens's work through violence. Instead, this thesis demonstrates that malevolent manifestations of same-sex desire are part of a wider spectrum of homoerotic representation that also includes highly positive depictions. The final chapters extend the examination of Dickens's career-long commitment to developing pioneering strategies for the positive articulation of same-sex desire. Through attention to Dickens's deployment of homotropical relocation, chapter four argues that Dickens drew upon those sites that were imaginatively sexualised in contemporary culture to re-negotiate the erotically unsatisfying conventional model of domesticity. Chapter five uncovers the highly erotic connotations of gentler ways of touching during the period of Dickens's career, focusing on the Victorian sexualisation of nursing to argue that Dickens deploys this eroticising of nurse/patient roles to develop more affirmative, tender strategies for articulating same-sex desire.

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Thomas Hardy's fiction and verse contain numerous references to traditional culture, in all its aspects, but this body of material has attracted very little attention since Firor's Folkways in Thomas Hardy, published over seventy years ago. The neglect of Hardy's work by folklorists is judged to stem from a suspicion of fictional material and a belief that Firor's seemingly comprehensive review leaves no scope for further consideration. This study sets out to establish the importance of Hardy as a source, first by assessing the reliability of the folklore references in his work and, secondly, by considering all examples of his writings, both published and unpublished, many of which were not available to Firor for her study. References by Hardy to traditional culture are set out in chapter 2, classified on a basis developed at the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition. Chapter 3 then demonstrates that, with very few exceptions, the traditions recorded by Hardy are likely to be genuine. A review of the range and significance of Hardy's references follows, from which it is clear that the detailed consideration of a restricted range of subjects is likely to be more profitable than a general commentary in assessing Hardy's worth in this field. The subject of west gallery bands is then considered in detail and Hardy's writings on this subject are compared to other accounts, mostly brought together here for the first time, to demonstrate how Hardy complements and extends knowledge of the subject. A similar approach is then adopted, first in respect of mummers' plays and then of witchcraft. These major chapters are followed by some shorter notes on other traditions, less extensively documented by Hardy, but equally illustrative of the value of his testimony. Finally, the extent of Hardy's contribution to the subject is appraised and further avenues for research are outlined.

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