Some matters interesting and amusing via academical networks
This sounds fascinating, but I am aghast at the price (though it's par for the course for that particular academic press): Ryan Hanley. Beyond Slavery and Abolition: Black British Writing, c.1770-1830: 'the Royal Historical Society deemed Beyond Slavery and Abolition worthy of its annual Whitfield Prize, an award that this novel work most certainly deserves'.
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This covers some of the same ground as Jeff Weeks, Between Worlds, which I recently read and recommended, and in fact Jeff is name-checked therein: The Gay Left and Me in London: A Gay Man's Story in Snapshots.
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William Seymour: ‘The Female Cab Driver of Liverpool’: What do gender passing individuals like William Seymour tell us about nineteenth-century gender?
First, they tell us that gender identity was a slippery slope full of challenges and assumptions. Despite the idealised images of the sexually frustrated middle-class woman, the nineteenth century was littered with questionable gender performances, both publicly and privately. Take Boulton and Park’s alter egos Fanny and Stella, for instance, or the relationship between Arthur Munby and Hannah Cullwick as well as Dr James Miranda Barry. Indeed, the lack of judicial shock in the court room, or criminal charges surrounding William being exposed as biologically female whilst being remanded in custody, implies that there was little concern around gender passing at that time. Although gendered ideals existed, they were just that - ideals - and were far from uniformly followed. Instead, gender was just as fluid, performative and unstable as it is today. William demonstrated this by creating a new life for himself after he escaped from an abusive marriage at a young age and remained independent for nearly a decade.
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And on Victorians who were not 'Victorian', Edward Lloyd not only published 'penny bloods', that notorious form of literature for the increasingly literate lower orders, along with more reputable organs of the press, his own life appears, well, somewhat colourful, involving, among other things, being sued for 'crim. con.'
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On an entirely lighter and more frivolous note, I was charmed to spot this conference announcement: Domestic Cats in Literature. As it's virtual, might one hope that participants' own moggies might be present?
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