FEMALE COMIC GROTESQUE CHARACTERS IN VICTORIAN NOVELS: INVESTIGATING THE POSSIBILITIES OF LIMINALITY

Barbara Farnworth

doi:10.23860/diss-farnworth-barbara-2020

Abstract

Female comic authors during the nineteenth century have received little attention from twentieth and twenty-first century literary critics. As Regina Barreca observes, major studies of the role of comedy in British literature do not deal with women writers (Barrecca 1988 11). Several anthologies which focus on humor in nineteenth-century literature begin with Jane Austen and then ignore every other female comedic writer. Similarly, studies of the comic grotesque in nineteenth century literature focus primarily on how it is employed by male authors such as Charles Dickens, William Thackeray and Anthony Trollope. My dissertation will address this imbalance by examining the employment of the female comic grotesque in humorous novels by three non-canonical, female authors, Emily Eden, Catherine Gore and Frances Trollope. Humorous texts often challenge oppressive ideas and socio-cultural norms through the use of satirical wit. Nineteenth-century female authors employ humor to disguise their attacks on contemporary values and thus avoid retribution. One comedic method they utilize is inversion which involves an unexpected and humorous switching of normal roles so that, for example, the master obeys his servant and wife rules her husband. Through these reversals of normal roles, the rules and prohibitions of culture are suspended so that readers can view their social and political relationships with more clarity; inversions may, therefore, act subversively by demonstrating possibilities for a different societal structure. These comic inversions are very often located in comic grotesque characters. In this dissertation, I analyze female comic grotesque characters in female-authored novels that challenge upperclass and male authorities by inverting class and gender hierarchies. In these humorous novels, overweight female characters, grotesque by virtue of their body size, rise from their middle-class origins to achieve upper class status. Similarly, loquacious grotesque women challenge gender role norms by ruling over their husbands and male relatives.

Highlights

Stuart Tave coined the term “amiable humorist” in his study which speculates that during the late-eighteenth century a good-natured and good-humored ideal arose in British culture (ix)
Robert Martin highlights nineteenthcentury discomfort with humor through his analysis of the debates surrounding the appropriate types of comedy and the variety of definitions of satire and wit (31)
Martin identifies an eventual shift from genial laughter to a greater focus on wit, associated with intelligence and satire, in the 1860’s and 70’s (29)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

A major shift in comic sensibility occurred in eighteenth-century Britain. The primarily intellectual appeal of traditional comic theory, which was based on superiority and ethical correction, gradually yielded to a comedy of incongruity, which may invoke affection as well as laughter. They, like Austen, Braddon and Broughton, targeted social issues, such as rigid class and gender roles, through their wit and satire By focusing on these authors and their novels, my dissertation addresses a gap in the critical work on nineteenth-century female humor. Unruly woman, Lady Portmore challenges male authority and demonstrates to the reader an example of expanding a woman’s behavior beyond her traditional feminine role of submitting to her husband’s will. While Lady Portmore is definitely immoral, Mrs Douglas displays a strict middle-class morality In both cases, they challenge male authority figures and demonstrate to the reader the possibility of expanding their behavior beyond traditional feminine roles

Conclusion

Findings

CONCLUSION