The Afterlife of Christina Rossetti

Despite new historical study of her contexts, Christina Rossetti continues to haunt the reader as a displaced subjectivity emptied of history. Through an analysis of the posthumous in her work, the construction of 'Christina Rossetti' by her brothers, and the history of reception, this study asks how 'speaking with the

Despite new historical study of her contexts, Christina Rossetti continues to haunt the reader as a displaced subjectivity emptied of history. Through an analysis of the posthumous in her work, the construction of 'Christina Rossetti' by her brothers, and the history of reception, this study asks how 'speaking with the

Engaging critically with the political and aesthetic agenda behind the project of recovery, this collection of specially commissioned essays offers revisionary readings of both established canonical Victorian women poets and re-discovered writers.

Although the cultural and literary influence of Christina Rossetti has recently been widely acknowledged, the belatedness of this critical attention has left wide gaps in our understanding of her poetic contribution. Often focusing solely on her early work and neglecting her later volumes, many critics minimized her relevance by measuring

This builds on the reinterpretations of Rossetti that have emerged in the last 20 years, showing her as a persistent critic of her culture, as well as one who explored language, sexuality and feminine identity.