Entirely fresh influences in Edwardian Wildeana: queerness in Mary Elizabeth Braddon's The Rose of Life (1905) and Julia Frankau's The Sphinx's Lawyer (1906)

Markovic, A. (2021) Entirely fresh influences in Edwardian Wildeana: queerness in Mary Elizabeth Braddon's The Rose of Life (1905) and Julia Frankau's The Sphinx's Lawyer (1906). Women's Writing, 28(1), pp. 107-122. (doi: 10.1080/09699082.2019.1670503)

Abstract

Whereas Edwardian male-authored Wildeana tends to represent the Wildean character as a solipsistic bachelor, whose tarnished reputation could affect only his bachelor friends, Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s The Rose of Life (1905) and Julia Frankau’s The Sphinx’s Lawyer (1906) place the Wildean character within the family unit. This allows them to examine the consequences the character’s legal prosecution and stigmatisation could have on his wife. Braddon’s and Frankau’s novels shift the focus from homoeroticism and homosexuality to the catalysing role male influence plays in the development of innate queerness. At the same time, they critically engage with the contemporary belief that female influence might “cure” queerness. Braddon and Frankau avoid demonising and/or oversimplifying the Wildean character’s feelings and note that queerness and the family are by no means oppositional or antithetical units. To achieve this effect, they invariably sacrifice women’s happiness, which allows us to read their novels as more anti-feminist than anti-queer.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Markovic, Dr Ana
• Authors: Markovic, A.
• College/School: College of Arts > School of Critical Studies
• Journal Name: Women's Writing
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 0969-9082
• ISSN (Online): 1747-5848
• Published Online: 07 October 2019
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor and Francis Group
• First Published: First published in Women's Writing 28(1): 107-122
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy