This dissertation examines the form of the nineteenth-century sonnet in order to demonstrate how this poetry reshapes expectations of Victorian desire, love and marriage. The amatory sonnet sequence, a poetic form which dates back to the early thirteenth century, traditionally chronicled courtly love and unrequited desire. Naked Novels, however, examines how the form of the Victorian sonnet sequence shifts its focus from courtly desire to take as its subject the center of the domestic spheremarriage. I draw a connection between the strict formula of the sonnet and the strict norm of sanctioned intimacy recognized in Victorian marriage in order to problematize both the poetic form and the legal institution. I argue that exposing sites of queernessmoments that question heterosexuality as normativein nineteenth-century amatory poetry also exposes the texts resistance to and critique of social and political structures, particularly marriage. Following a trajectory from mid-century through the fin de siècle, I analyze sonnet sequences by poets such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Meredith, Christina and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, George Eliot, Augusta Webster and Michael Field.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-11282010-181324 |
| Date | 04 December 2010 |
| Creators | Kersh, Sarah Erin |
| Contributors | Carolyn Dever, Rachel Teukolsky, Ellen Levy, Tricia Lootens |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-11282010-181324/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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