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By Her Own Hand: Female Agency Through Self-Castration in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction

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By Her Own Hand: Female Agency Through Self-Castration in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Dissertations Department of English 11-20-2008 By her Own Hand: Female Agency through Self-Castration in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction Angela Marie Hall-Godsey Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Hall-Godsey, Angela Marie, "By her Own Hand: Female Agency through Self-Castration in Nineteenth- Century British Fiction." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2008. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss/38 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BY HER OWN HAND: FEMALE AGENCY THROUGH SELF-CASTRATION IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH FICTION by ANGELA MARIE HALL-GODSEY Under the Direction of Dr. Michael Galchinsky ABSTRACT By Her Own Hand: Female Agency Through Self-Castration in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction explores the intentional methods of self-castration that lead to authorial empowerment. The project relies on the following self-castration formula: the author’s recognition of herself as a being defined by lack. This lack refers to the inability to signify within the phallocentric system of language. In addition to this initial recognition, the female author realizes writing for public consumption emulates the process of castration but, nevertheless, initiates the writing process as a way to resituate the origin of castration—placing it in her own hand. The female writer also recognizes her production as feminine and, therefore works to castrate her own femininity in her pursuit to create texts that are liberated from the critical assignation of “feminine productions.” Female self-castration is a violent act of displacement. As the author gains empowerment through the writing process, she creates characters that bear the mark of castration. The text opens a field of play in which the author utilizes the page as a way to cut, disfigure, or erase the feminine sexual body. On the authorial level, the feminine writer works through her self- castration process through the process of writing, editing, and publication. Within the text, her characters demonstrate a will toward liberation from authorial productive hegemony by carrying the mark of their creator’s castration and by taking on the power the process allocates to the writer. INDEX WORDS: Castration, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Margaret Oliphant, Narrative Castration, Identity, Text as Body, Female Agency BY HER OWN HAND: FEMALE AGENCY THROUGH SELF-CASTRATION IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH FICTION by ANGELA MARIE HALL-GODSEY A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2008 Copyright by Angela Marie Hall-Godsey 2008 BY HER OWN HAND: FEMALE AGENCY THROUGH SELF-CASTRATION IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH FICTION by ANGELA MARIE HALL-GODSEY Committee Chair: Michael Galchinsky Committee: Calvin Thomas LeeAnne Richardson Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University December 2008 iv Dedication To the two Eleanors in my life. My Grandmother, Eleanor Rose, who was my earliest representation of a “feminist;” and, my daughter Eleanor Grace, who reminds me every day of the value of curiosity. v Acknowledgements When I tell people I am writing a dissertation on female self-castration in nineteenth- century British fiction, I usually get a response like “that’s interesting” or “sounds nice.” I am never surprised by the reactions, but I must say I always hope they might respond “how fascinating, please tell me more.” My experience of the dissertating process fluctuates between feelings of brilliance and failure. Even now, as I finish the project, I am struck by how much I have learned and how much I have yet to figure out. It is no coincidence, I suppose, that a large part of my argument focuses on the oscillation between two fixed points and the failure of language to adequately represent the space in between. And, while the dissertating process is a solitary one – a construction of an “expert” – it is also a process which depends upon the encouragement of others. So, while I know the gratitude I express in the following page will fail to accurately represent the depth to which I owe, love, and respect those who have encouraged, nudged, and supported me, I will, nonetheless, try. First, my husband Greg, who I hope, more than anyone, is proud of this final product. I admire his determination, his wit, and his energy. I know I couldn’t have finished without his love and support; and, I will always be grateful for the lengths at which he went to enable me to be a full-time student. I would also like to thank my family, especially my mother, father, and brother. Whenever I needed someone to sit on the phone and listen to me read twenty pages aloud – just for the sake of hearing myself read it – I know I could always call my mom. My father, who will admit to knowing nothing about nineteenth-century British literature, much less my formulation of female self-castration, will, I am sure, read every line of this dissertation. I owe my work ethic to him, as well as my ability to fix things and figure things out (no matter how many times vi it takes me). My brother, who is one of the smartest people I know, which I will only admit here. Just a simple request: please do not use the bound copy of this dissertation as a coaster on your coffee table. I must also thank my director, Dr. Michael Galchinsky, who I can never thank enough for knowing the right time to treat me like a colleague, a student, and a friend. I was saved by his ability to help me articulate the often spastic thoughts during the early stages of each chapter. His thoughtful and direct (even when I didn’t want to hear them) comments on my writing were of great assistance in fine-tuning my “voice” and my argument. While I can’t possibly express in words how much I respect him, I can hope he knows. I would also like to thank Dr. Calvin Thomas and Dr. LeeAnne Richardson; the former who helped me create the theoretical underpinnings of this project and the latter for working with me in an effort to make my language more direct, more concise and, therefore, more powerful. In addition to my committee, I would also like to thank Dr. Marti Singer, who read my work, even when she didn’t “have” to. More importantly, I would like to thank her for providing me the best example of an academic/mother and for always reminding me of the importance of nurturing both. Dr. Baotong Gu, who, especially in the final stages of this process, always recognized when I needed a break and who, more times than I can count, made me forget about my stress by making me laugh. I must also thank Marta Hess and Dr. Tammy Mills for granting me the latitude to finish the project, but most of all for being my sounding board when I was frustrated. I am truly blessed to have them as friends and colleagues. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Melissa McLeod and Dr. Jennifer Lawrence. I could not have asked for more supportive friends. I especially want to thank Melissa for letting me talk through some of the more difficult parts of my argument, for giving me a shoulder to lean on vii during times of crisis, and for knowing just when to turn up the music and sing or drive for hours to chase the moon. I would like to thank Jennifer for always being a loyal friend and supportive colleague. I owe her more than I can ever repay, and, more than anyone, I am grateful to her for keeping me focused and grounded. I am indebted to her for always telling me what I needed to hear, even when she knew I might respond unfairly. I came to depend on her advice, criticism, encouragement, and friendship. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v INTRODUCTION 1 The Development of Self-Castration Theory 2 A Point of Departure: Self-Castration Theory Beyond the Father’s Tools 8 Chapter Outline 16 CHAPTER 1 NARRATIVE CASTRATION: THE FIRST-PERSON SPEAKS AS VIOLENT NARRATOR 22 The Self-Castrating Creation of Currer Bell 23 Jane Eyre Makes the Cut for Sexual Liberation 36 Lucy Snowe and the Gothic Liberation from Sex 45 2 DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS: GEORGE ELIOT’S FICTIONAL BODY AND BODIES OF FICTION 56 George Eliot’s “Come to Fiction” Moment 61 The Erotic Secret and the Process of Becoming 74 Pollian: The Vengeful Author/God 89 3 THE MOTHER’S KNIFE: DICKENS AND FEMALE VIOLENCE 103 Monsters in His House: Dickens and the Genesis of Sexual Dysfunction 107 iv Oedipal Perversions and Castration Anxiety 111 Violent Signification: A Linguistic Impossibility? 114 Rewarding the Present Body and Absent Voice: Esther’s Narrative in Bleak House 120 “A grand woman, a frightfully grand woman!” Sign Confusion and Female Violence in A Tale of Two Cities 126 Thwarting Expectations: The Violent Female’s Failure to Underwrite Victorian Masculinity 131 4 Irresponsible: The Incessant Work of Self-Murder In Margaret Oliphant’s Fiction and Autobiography 135 The Thread That Binds Them and the Line That Divides Them: Oliphant, Brontë, and Eliot 136 “An Army of Logic in an Unreasonable World”: Oliphant and Feminism 143 “The terrible
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