"Mere costumery"?: Georgette Heyer's cross-dressing novels

Fletcher, Lisa (2004) "Mere costumery"?: Georgette Heyer's cross-dressing novels. In: Masquerades: Disguise in Literature in English from the Middle Ages to the Present. Wydawnicto Uniwersytetu Gdanskiego, Gdansk, pp. 196-212. ISBN 83 7326 212 1

PDF - Full text restricted - Requires a PDF viewer
2965Kb

Abstract

This essay identifies a subgenre of popular historical romance fiction: the cross-dressing novel. This subgenre uses cross-gender disguise to insist that there is an entirely predictable and indisputable relationship between sex, gender, and sexuality. At the same time the disguise plots fail to close off the disruptive or progressive possibilities of cross-dressing. This essay has two sections. The first section offers a brief critique of the way popular fiction scholars and cultural theorists have interpreted cross-gender disguise to date. The second section is an analysis of Georgette Heyer's three cross-dressing novels, These Old Shades, The Masqueraders and the Corinthian.

Item Type:	Book Section
Keywords:	cross-dressing, romance, popular fiction, heterosexuality
ID Code:	538
Deposited By:	Dr Lisa Fletcher
Deposited On:	26 Sep 2007
Last Modified:	18 Jul 2008 19:45
ePrint Statistics:	View statistics for this ePrint

Repository Staff Only: item control page