Subversion of gender stereotypes in Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White and Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret
Sercan Öztekin
Kocaeli UnivesitySercan Öztekin is a Lecturer of English at Kocaeli University, Turkey. He received his Bachelor’s Degree from Dumlupınar University, Turkey, the Department of English Language and Literature, and Master’s Degree from Granada University, Spain. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Istanbul Aydin University in 2019. His Ph.D. study is on Victorian social constructions of crime, criminality, and the legal system with their representations in the novels of Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, and Charles Reade in the 1850s. His research includes Victorian literature and culture, crime fiction, and the history of crime and the police.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1021-8460
Abstract
Victorian sensation fiction strives to go beyond its time through issues and characters that do not conform to nineteenth century social norms. The novels of this genre depict the sensational lives with deceits and crimes which shocked the readers of their time, and they increase the reader’s tension with sensational narratives including untraditional matters and portrayals. Along with scandalous and criminal subjects, these works sometimes offer unconventional depictions of femininity and masculinity in the Victorian Age. Accordingly, this paper discusses Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White (1860) and Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) focusing on male and female characters challenging traditional gender stereotypes. It examines how these novels describe characters rather dissimilar to the ones in the traditional fiction of the era through their cunnings, intrigues, and unconventional attitudes with regard to marriage, power, and gender roles.
Keywords:
Victorian sensation fiction, subversion, gender, femininity, masculinity.References
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Kocaeli Univesity
Sercan Öztekin is a Lecturer of English at Kocaeli University, Turkey. He received his Bachelor’s Degree from Dumlupınar University, Turkey, the Department of English Language and Literature, and Master’s Degree from Granada University, Spain. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Istanbul Aydin University in 2019. His Ph.D. study is on Victorian social constructions of crime, criminality, and the legal system with their representations in the novels of Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, and Charles Reade in the 1850s. His research includes Victorian literature and culture, crime fiction, and the history of crime and the police.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1021-8460
