Revised thesis (doctoral) - Universität, Tübingen, 2014.

Includes bibliographical references.

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"Houses, Secrets, and the Closet" investigates the literary production of masculinities and their relation to secrets and sexualities in 18th and 19th century fiction. It focusses on close readings of Gothic fiction, Sensation Novels, and tales by Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, William Godwin, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Wilkie Collins, and Henry James. The study approaches these texts through the lens of domestic space, gender, knowledge, and power. This approach serves to investigate the cultural roots of the 'closet' - the male homosexual secret - which reveals a more general notion of male sec.

Intro; Contents; Preface; Introduction; Prelude: Bluebeard; Context: History, Houses, and Masculinities; Methods: Secrecy, Sexuality, and Liminal Spaces; Bluebeard's 'Closet:' Gothic Novels; Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto; Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho; William Godwin's Caleb Williams; The Contested Secret Room: Sensation Novels; Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White; Wilkie Collins' No Name; Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret; Globalising the 'Closet:' Henry James; Henry James' "The Aspern Papers"; Henry James' "In the Cage"; Henry James' "The Jolly Corner"; Coda.

Works CitedPrimary Literature; Secondary Literature.

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