Old Dominion University ODU Digital Commons English Theses & Dissertations English Spring 2019 Familiar Forms, Strange Uses: Paratexts, Narrative Interventions, and the Queering of Possible Worlds in Illicit Narratives of Nineteenth-Century Britain Jessica Saxon Old Dominion University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/english_etds Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, and the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons Recommended Citation Saxon, Jessica. "Familiar Forms, Strange Uses: Paratexts, Narrative Interventions, and the Queering of Possible Worlds in Illicit Narratives of Nineteenth-Century Britain" (2019). Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), dissertation, English, Old Dominion University, DOI: 10.25777/tyn4-e311 https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/english_etds/82 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the English at ODU Digital Commons. 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FAMILIAR FORMS, STRANGE USES: PARATEXTS, NARRATIVE INTERVENTIONS, AND THE QUEERING OF POSSIBLE WORLDS IN ILLICIT NARRATIVES OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN by Jessica Saxon B.A. May 1999, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill M.A. May 2002, North Carolina State University A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Old Dominion University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ENGLISH OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY May 2019 Approved by: Edward Jacobs (Director) Leila May (Member) Manuela Mourão (Member) Delores Phillips (Member) ABSTRACT FAMILIAR FORMS, STRANGE USES: PARATEXTS, NARRATIVE INTERVENTIONS, AND THE QUEERING OF POSSIBLE WORLDS IN ILLICIT NARRATIVES OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN Jessica Saxon Old Dominion University, 2019 Director: Dr. Edward Jacobs “Losing” one’s self in a story is one of the great pleasures of reading. Key to this act is the “transport” of the reader into the storyworld. Nineteenth-century British narratives offered various transport modes, including prefaces and footnotes designed to orient the reader to the storyworld and narrative interventions designed to align the reader with the values of that world. Yet this act of transport was fraught with tensions and anxieties in the nineteenth century. Worries about the dangers of reading, especially the dangers for women and the lower classes, abounded; much of the worry stemmed from fears that these readers would not be able to tell the difference between “good” and “bad” reading materials and between facts and fictions – that these readers would be tainted or corrupted by the act of reading. Illicit narratives of the nineteenth century appropriated forms associated with more aboveboard narratives. In borrowing prefaces, footnotes, and the direct address of readers, these illicit narratives cloak themselves with the appearances of licit stories. Illicit narrative is not a genre – it is an umbrella term for those narratives classed by contemporary society as unsuitable reading materials. Gothic novels, sensation fiction, and erotica are illicit narratives as are newspaper reports and scholarly texts on taboo subjects. Rather than being a stable category, the term “illicit” is subject to change based on societal norms; that which was considered illicit in the 1830s may seem tame by the 1890s. This project explores the uses of paratextual and narratorial interventions in a selection of illicit British narratives from the nineteenth century. Classifications of narratives as illicit are based on contemporary views of the narratives. Moreover, for the purposes of this project, only those illicit narratives centering on gender, sex, and sexuality will be considered. Drawing on the concept of possible worlds from narrative theory, this project explores the ways in which these interventions work with and against the content of the narratives to create queered possible worlds for the reader. iv Copyright, 2019, by Jessica Saxon, All Rights Reserved. v For myself, if I’m being honest about it vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful for the encouragement and support of my dissertation chair, Edward Jacobs. Without his guidance and his perfect balancing of calling me out and leaving me alone, this dissertation would have never been finished. I am also grateful for the assistance of the dissertation readers, Manuela Mourão, Delores Phillips, and Leila May. Their feedback and encouragement were invaluable to the project. I am particularly grateful for the opportunity to work again with Leila May, whose work with me at North Carolina State University during my Masters program not only shaped my scholarly pursuits but also my teaching. Thanks to Robyn Warhol for introducing me to Victorian Serial Novels, a website that collects the original serialized versions of various novels; without this site, I would not have been able to uncover the original preamble to The Woman in White. Thanks also to Dave at Broadview Press for his help accessing a wide variety of nineteenth- century British texts. Portions of chapter four on narrative interventions in Venus in India first appeared in spring 2017 in Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies as “Fair Readers of Pornography: Narrative Intervention & Parodic-Didactic Style in Captain Charles Deveraux’s Venus in India.” I am grateful for the funding provided by Old Dominion University in the fall of 2017; the funding allowed me to “buy back” time from my employer, giving me three days a week during the semester to write this dissertation. I am particularly thankful for the assistance provided by Dale Miller and Delores Phillips in navigating the funding and release process. I am also thankful for the support from my colleagues in the PhD program at Old Dominion. The members of my incoming cohort year as well as those who took comprehensive vii exams with me have been sources of inspiration for the last seven years, and Megan Mize’s tireless work organizing and leading writing workshops and boot camps helped me create and maintain a productive writing schedule. I am particularly thankful for the support and friendship of Luxx Mishou. When she joined the program, I was thrilled to have another Victorianist to talk to and work with, and over the years, I have consistently turned to her for advice. Her scholarship is jaw-droppingly wonderful. If you are reading this, you should also be reading her publications. My Amigas – Syd McGinley and April Cobos – have been with me from the start of this program. These two amazingly smart and supportive women have pushed me and lifted me and comforted me and nagged me more times than I can count. Syd and April have read my drafts, provided keen insights and constructive feedback, and encouraged me at every turn in this process. They have helped me keep my sanity and have been a fantastic personal and professional support system; our online chat has been and continues to be the foundation of what has become one of my most valued friendships. I would not have made it through this process without them. Elizabeth Spencer and Emily Stewart, two wonderful friends from my non-PhD life, have patiently and lovingly listened through my bouts of joys and complaints as I have written over the last several years; they have been my emotional support system in so many aspects of my life. They have dragged me away from writing when I couldn’t see that I needed a break, and they have dragged me back to writing when I’ve started dawdling. They have watched my children (so much that they have each become second mothers to my kids) so I could write and think. And they nodded politely when I yammered on for too long about this project. Finally, I am grateful for the love and support of my family – my children, Liam Snipes and Amélie Saxon; my brother, Neal Saxon; my sister(-in-law), Kelly Saxon; and my parents, Miriam and John Saxon. Liam and Amélie have been incredibly forgiving and patient with me over the years it viii has taken me to complete this program. They have fixed meals for each other (and me), cleaned the house, and cared for animals when I’ve been too wrapped up in reading and writing to take a break. They have handled the disappointments that come with “not now, loves” and “mama’s working” like champs. Neal, Kelly, Mom, and Dad have been my relentless cheering section and have always swooped in at the right moment with encouragement and/or offers to take my kids for a weekend (or even a week) so I can work. I couldn’t ask for better human beings to be related to. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 1 Writing/Reading Queerness ............................................................................................................... 2 Defining Illicit Narratives .................................................................................................................... 5 Theoretical Framework, Part One: Storyworlds, Actual Worlds, and Possible Worlds .......... 16 Theoretical Framework, Part Two: Paratextual and Narratorial Interventions ........................ 24 Theoretical Framework, Part Three: Feminist/Queer Narratology ........................................... 36