The Politics of Gender in Anthony Trollope's Novels: New Readings for the Twenty-First Century

Bringing together established critics and exciting new voices, The Politics of Gender in Anthonh Trollope's Novels offers original readings of Trollope that recognize and repay his importance as source material for scholars working in diverse fields of literary and cultural studies. As the editors observe in their provocative introduction, Trollope more than any of his contemporaries is studied by scholars from disciplines outside literary studies. The contributors here draw together work from economics, colonialism and ethnicity, gender studies, new historicism, liberalism, legal studies, and politics that convincingly argues for the eminence of Trollope's writings as a vehicle for the theoretical explorations of Victorian culture that currently predominate. The essays variously examine imperial and postcolonial themes in the context of economic, cultural, aesthetic, and demographic influences; show how gender-sensitive readings expose Trollope's critique of capitalism's influence; address Trollope and sexuality in the context of queer studies, the law, archetypal constructions, and classical feminism; and offer new approaches to narrative theory through examination of Victorian understandings of male and female psychology. Regenia Gagnier's concluding chapter revisits the collection's critical strands and reflects on the implications for future studies of Trollope.

Contents: Introduction, Margaret Markwick and Deborah Denenholz Morse; Section 1 Sex, Power and Subversion: (A)genda trouble and the Lot complex: older men-younger women relationships in Trollope, Robert M. Polhemus; He Knew He was Right: the sensational tyranny of the sexual contract and the problem of liberal progress, Kathy Alexis Psomiades; Bastards to the time: legitimacy as legal fiction in Trollope's novels of the 1870s, Jenny Bourne Taylor; Out of the closet: homoerotics in Trollope's novels, Margaret Markwick. Section 2 Imperial gender: 'Some girls who come from the tropics': gender, race, and imperialism in Anthony Trollope's He Knew He Was Right, Deborah Denenholz Morse; Anthony Trollope's The Eustace Diamonds and 'the great Parliamentary bore', Lauren M.E. Goodlad; 'Two identities': gender, ethnicity and Phineas Finn, Mary Jean Corbett; The rough and the beautiful in 'Catherine Carmichael': class and gender in Trollope's colonial aesthetic, Helen Lucy Blythe. Section 3 Genderised Economics: Mister Trollope, Lady Credit and The Way We Live Now, Nathan Hensley; A woman of money: Miss Dunstable, Thomas Holloway, and Victorian commercial wealth, Elsie B. Michie; Otherwise occupied: masculine widows in Trollope's novels, Christopher S. Noble. Section 4 The Gender of Narrative Construction: Trollope at fuller length: Lord Silverbridge and the manuscript of The Duke's Children, Steven Armanick; 'Depth of portraiture': what should distinguish a Victorian man from a Victorian woman?, David Skilton; The weight of religion and history: women dying of virtue in Trollope's later short fiction, Anca Vlasopolos; Conclusion: Gender, liberalism and resentment, Regenia Gagnier; Bibliography; Index.