Mary Robinson’s Walsingham: Self-Monsterization, Gender Nonconformity, and Sexual (Dis)orientation

Abstract

This essay argues that Mary Robinson’s subversion of gender in her Gothic novel Walsingham (1797) is more radical than critics have suggested. I offer a trans reading of Walsingham that focuses on the evolution of Sir Sidney Aubrey’s nonnormative gender identity and behavior. Along with emphasizing transformation and embodiment, trans theory disrupts essentializing categories such as male, female, heterosexual, gay, and lesbian. It thus provides a useful lens through which to examine Walsingham, in which Sidney and the title character transition from one identity to another. I examine the transgender Sidney’s conception of themself as a monster and the eponymous protagonist’s psychosexual development: throughout the novel, both characters see themselves as metamorphic, not-quite-human subjectivities driven by self-destructive passions. The novel’s conclusion presents a scenario in which gender transition occurs rapidly, a trans person finds acceptance, and the conflicted male protagonist immediately falls in love with them.