"The air smelt queer" : En queerteoretisk närläsning av Sarah Waters Fingersmith

Sammanfattning: Fingersmith is a historical novel with a clear, non-heteronormative agenda. It was published in 2002 by Sarah Waters, and it challenges the way the Victorian era viewed and oppressed non-heteronormative sexuality. The characters Susan Trinder and Maud Lilly, is exposed to both imprisonment, violence and abuse as a kind of collective punishment of “the mad woman”. The primary goal of this queer analysis is to see how ‘multisexual’ expressions can be traced in the novel, often conveyed through neo-Victorian symbols and the function of the colour ’red/crimson’. It also discusses how the neo-Victorian symbols (especially the important function of Maud’s white gloves) works as both a way of turning women mad and keeping them sane in a world determined to ’cure’ sexuality that differs from its heteronormative structure.