Christina Rossetti's poetry and prose, written in 19th-century England, deals with the human fixation on appearance. Her belief in the Tractarian precepts of the Oxford Movement, primarily expostulated by John Keble and John Newman, transformed Rossetti's outlook on perception. Her association with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood also influenced her obsession with sight and insight. The focus of Melanie Hanson's study is the re-envisionment of Christina Rossetti's poetry and prose from three theoretical perspectives: deconstructionist theory, feminist literary theory, and Marxist literary...

This book brings the ideas of French feminist Hélène Cixous to bear on a number of Early Modern English texts. The female characters of Mariam from Elizabeth Carys 'The Tragedy of Mariam', Lavinia from William Shakespeares 'Titus Andronicus' as well as John Miltons Eve in 'Paradise Lost' and the poetic voice of Isabella Whitney are investigated through the application of Cixouss theories of figurative decapitation and disgorgement. The author examines the creation of a unique discourse through the blending of what is stereotypically referred to as female text with male discourse, which...