On Female-Shamed Subjectivity in Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”

Abstract

ABSTRACT Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” has received considerable attention largely due to the interpreting of its biblical allusion and female issues, including female subjectivity and sisterhood. However, these studies tend to focus on female issues in terms of theology, feminism, and psychoanalysis. Few studies have investigated the relationship between emotions and female identity. Shame is a paramount emotion in Rossetti’s work. This article examines how shame exerts a great influence on female subjectivity in Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” by applying Gershen Kaufman’s theory on the psychology of shame. It first investigates how Laura’s “disgrace shame” and Lizzie’s “discretion shame” dynamically determine the development of their self-identity. Focusing on the psychotherapeutic process of their shame, it then explores how Laura and Lizzie restore their sisterhood and find ways to reconstruct their shamed subjectivity. Finally, this article concludes that the shame tied to the consciousness of subjectivity in Rossetti’s heroines further reflects how shame underlies women’s writing in the Victorian era. By placing “Goblin Market” in dialogue with Kaufman’s account of shame’s capacity to forge self-identity, this article hopes to inspire more discussion about female issues in poetry in terms of affect studies.