This book is the first full-length study to focus on the representation of masculinity in Elizabeth Gaskell's novels. In examining Gaskell's understanding of masculine identity as a social construct and considering how her writing engages with Victorian ideologies of gender, this book demonstrates that Gaskell defies an essentialist approach to gender and instead explores masculinity over time, genre, region, and class, making it clear that masculinity is not monolithic but relational, culturally constructed, and dependent on many contexts. It analyses Gaskell's depiction of what it means to be a 'man' and a 'gentleman', exploring Mary Barton, North and South, Ruth, Cousin Phillis, Sylvia's Lovers, and Wives and Daughters, as well as contemporary Victorian works and key contexts such as sympathy, historic change, and industrialism. The target audiences are academics, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students and research specialists, and it will most appeal toVictorian Literature, Gender Studies, and Masculinity Studies disciplines.
1. Introduction.- 2. Working Class Masculinity in
Mary Barton.- 3. Masters and Hands in
North and South.- 4. Intertextual Masculinities in
The Scarlet Letter and
Ruth.- 5. Models of Masculinity in
David Copperfield and
Cousin Phillis.- 6. Historic Masculinities in
Sylvia's Lovers.- 7. Husbands and Sons: Masculinity in
Wives and Daughters.- 8. Conclusion.
Meghan Lowe is a Research Specialist at Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a global not-for-profit organization. She earned a PhD for her doctoral research on Elizabeth Gaskell from the University of St Andrews, UK, where she also taught on nineteenth-century British and comparative literature modules.
"Both of these monographs have something to offer Victorian scholarship. ... its wide breadth of interests and broad approach, which often prevent Lowe from delving too deeply into given topics, make this monograph a better place for Gaskell scholars to begin thinking about masculinity than for masculinity scholars to turn to for portable ideas ... ." (Bianca Perez-Cancino, Victorian Studies, Vol. 65 (3), 2023)
