Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fall 1-1-2015 "A Stranger to the World": Women, Bisexuality, and Performance in Eighteenth-Century England Jade Higa Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Recommended Citation Higa, J. (2015). "A Stranger to the World": Women, Bisexuality, and Performance in Eighteenth-Century England (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/79 This Worldwide Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “A STRANGER TO THE WORLD”: WOMEN, BISEXUALITY, AND PERFORMANCE IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND A Dissertation Submitted to the McAnulty College & Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Jade Higa December 2015 Copyright by Jade Higa 2015 “A STRANGER TO THE WORLD”: WOMEN, BISEXUALITY, AND PERFORMANCE IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND By Jade Higa Approved November 9, 2015 ________________________________ ________________________________ Laura Engel, Ph. D. Susan K. Howard, Ph. D. Associate Professor of English Associate Professor of English (Committee Chair) (Committee Member) ________________________________ ________________________________ Kristina Straub, Ph. D. Greg Barnhisel, Ph. D. Professor of English Chair, English Department Carnegie Mellon University Professor of English (Committee Member) ________________________________ Dr. James Swindal Dean, McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Professor of Philosophy iii ABSTRACT “A STRANGER TO THE WORLD”: WOMEN, BISEXUALITY, AND PERFORMANCE IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND By Jade Higa December 2015 Dissertation supervised by Professor Laura Engel. As queer theory has evolved and been adapted by scholars of various fields, queer studies has become increasingly important to academic understandings of the eighteenth century. However, the broadness of queer scholarship has resulted in specific sexualities becoming less visible. This project grapples with the concept of bisexuality and its relation to gender, performance, and women in the late eighteenth century. It proposes the intersection of queer temporalities and the gaze to develop a new methodology in which the scholar consciously looks back at the eighteenth century through the lens of the twenty-first century. The project considers representations of bisexuality and sexual fluidity in Charlotte Charke’s A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Charlotte Charke, Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, and Joanna Baillie’s Witchcraft, and it reads each text through popular visual culture of the twenty-first century. Using the term bisexuality encourages a iv deeper consideration of both the benefits and potential disadvantages in using sexual identity labels. Furthermore, the juxtaposition of the two centuries explodes the rigidity of sexuality labels, genre, and linear temporality. Ultimately, “A Stranger to this World” promotes a viewpoint of eighteenth-century sexuality that embraces ambiguity and becomes relevant to twenty-first century culture. v DEDICATION For Janelle: you saw me through the best and worst of graduate school. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First, I must acknowledge the Duquesne University English Department for awarding me a writing fellowship for the 2014-2015 academic year. The time was invaluable to the completion of this project. And to Nora McBurney: you are the blessing and the backbone of the department. This project would be nothing without the unwavering support of my committee. I would like to thank Dr. Laura Engel. I am incredibly grateful for Laura. From my first semester of graduate school, she has believed in me and encouraged me to succeed. She is an inspiring mentor, a consummate director, an excellent teacher, and a gracious friend; this dissertation would not exist without her support. Dr. Susan Howard and Dr. Kristina Straub have also been important mentors in this dissertation process. Sue has helped me grow into a careful scholar and writer, and Kristina has given me the benefit of her time and fascinating conversation. I am so thankful for you both. In addition to my committee, I have been blessed to have a great number of mentors within Duquesne’s English Department: Dr. Laura Callanan pushed me to refine my language and my theories, and I owe a great deal of my Introduction to her challenging and thoughtful questions. Dr. Daniel P. Watkins has been a great encourager of my potential contributions to the field and patiently helped me better understand the Romantic poets in an independent study. Joanna Baillie is a dear friend because of Dan. Dr. Linda Kinnahan was happy to engage with me in discussions of visual culture, feminism, and the stresses of graduate life. For further encouraging me in my thought process, I must thank Dr. Anne Brannen, Dr. Magali Michael, and Dr. Judy Suh. For vii helping me to elevate my writing, I am grateful to Dr. Greg Barnhisel and Dr. Danielle St. Hilaire. And for encouraging me in creative and effective pedagogy, I must again thank Greg and also Dr. Kathy Glass, Professor John Lane, and Dr. Jim Purdy. What an incredible privilege it has been to work with this talented, intelligent, lovely faculty. I am also incredibly grateful to my fellow sojourners: Lindsey Albracht, Ian Butcher, Madhuchhanda Ray Choudhury, Kate Hamilton, Mary Beth Harris, Jennifer Kane, Rachel Luckenbill, Rebekah Mitsein, Marcie Panutsos Rovan, Mary Parish, Will Powell, Sareene Proodian, Cheryl Read, Juliann Reineke, Katherine Richards, Aaron Rovan, Emily Rutter, Jeffery Stoyanoff, and Johanna Sullivan. Thank you for advice, support, encouragement, and most importantly, laughter. Finally, I want to thank my family. My mother and father, Christine and Grant Higa, have supported me financially, emotionally, and spiritually. My sister, Janelle, is a rock in my life. My dear friend, Jennifer Kane, might as well be my sister. To my grandparents, Mike and Sandy Badovinac and Richard and Maizie Higa: thank you. And although these loves of my life cannot read, I cannot end the acknowledgements without saying how important these dogs have been to my spiritual, mental, and emotional health while working on this project: Samson (who passed away in June 2012), Kai (who passed away in August 2014), Koa (who forced me to sit and write), and Molly (who forced me to take breaks). Dissertating with these dogs has been an immeasurable joy. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv Dedication .......................................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................ vii Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 I. Why ‘Bi,’ Gender Subjectivities, and Sexualities ........................................................12 II. Queer Notions of Time and the Bisexual Gaze ..........................................................20 III. Chapter Descriptions ................................................................................................27 Chapter 1: Charlotte’s Gun and Mr. Brown’s Dress: Material Culture, Sexual Fluidity, and A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Charlotte Charke .......................................................34 I. Introduction .................................................................................................................34 Charke, Material Objects, and Sexual Fluidity .........................................................44 II. Charlotte’s Celebrity Beginnings ...............................................................................46 III. Charlotte Charke’s Afterlives: A History of Critical Reception ...............................50 IV. Cross-dressing and Wig-donning ..............................................................................61 V. Charke and Objects ....................................................................................................73 VI. Conclusion: Charles Brown and Jo Calderone ........................................................82 Chapter 2: Flirting with the Boundaries of Time: Theater, Bisexuality, and Performance in Mansfield Park ...............................................................................................................90 I. Introduction ................................................................................................................90 II. Mansfield Park: History of Reception ......................................................................94 III. Mansfield Park: Female Queerness and Performance ..........................................102 ix Mansfield Park, Theatricality, and the Presence of Sexuality ................................133 The Erotic Props of Mansfield Park .......................................................................121 IV. Rozema’s Mansfield Park ......................................................................................129 V. Conclusion: Flirting with the Boundaries of Time .................................................141