acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

Late Victorian fiction often poses the trope of the rational, masculine mind, frequently associated with the figure of the male detective, in opposition to the stereotypically irrational, feminine mind. This binary underpins gender roles in Victorian sensation and detective novels, which both reinforce and trouble the simple vision of gender that these stereotypes imply. This dissertation examines and contextualizes the figure of the detective with its binary gender associations and the attempts it makes to negotiate and challenge the implicit tensions of contemporary gender roles. The sensational novels, Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret (1862), Wood's East Lynne (1861), Collins's The Woman in White (1860), and Trollope's The Eustace Diamonds (1873), depict the victimization and aggression of orphaned young women; these melodramatic narratives thematize feminine dissatisfaction and demonstrate the potent, unofficial forces of surveillance and regulation in Victorian society. In general, these women have negative experiences with the law, which undermine their autonomy. Collins's The Moonstone (1860), Dickens's Bleak House (1852--3), and Collins's The Law and the Lady (1875) portray a young woman's interaction with the law in a manner that demonstrates her own capability and independence, whether the woman functions as subject of investigation, adjunct to it, or investigator herself. The detectives' own prejudices about gender and rationality are further challenged in an examination of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story 'A Scandal in Bohemia' (1892) and Sigmund Freud's 1905 case study of Dora. Finally, Conrad's 1907 novel The Secret Agent ironically echoes and reworks the Victorian texts depictions of traditional gender roles and their faith in the efficacy of detection. Though many of these texts ultimately produce a limited, traditional vision of gender to create the apparent legal and moral order of the resolution, often, they also expand and even glorify women's positioning and abilities, offering a glimpse of greater feminine autonomy. While these texts do not envision the utopian possibilities out forth in 'New Woman' literature, the effect of these narratives exceeds their ideological limitations / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu