Member Profile
Name:
mrs GEMMA driver
Institution:
University of Liverpool
Academic status:
Student
Main discipline:
Literary Studies
Additional disciplines:
History
Other societies:
Research interests:
This project takes a biographical approach to Christina Rossetti’s work and challenges speculate psychobiographical readings and assumptions about her repressed sexuality and status as ‘spinster’. It examines the historical and cultural context of her work and puts her written correspondence and her literary output at its heart. Rossetti’s critical reception points to the limiting fact that the modern reader seemingly cannot read any work without it being through a sexual prism. This assignment seeks to explore how far Rossetti’s literary output is a reflection of her life, values and faith and to what extent she was able to transcend her feminine experience and rely on her own poetic imagination.