A “Queer” Reading of Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Aurora Floyd

초록

This article examines the use of the word “queer” in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Aurora Floyd (1863) to explore its connection to the concept of counterfeit, particularly within the context of nineteenth-century economic and social norms. The term “queer” historically referred to non-normal monetary matters, and this study investigates how its association with counterfeitness in the novel reflects broader Victorian anxieties about social status, gender, sexuality, class, and money. Through a philological analysis, the article argues that “queer” in this context functions as a metaphor for societal perceptions of authenticity and value, highlighting the tension between the real and the counterfeit, the authentic and the inauthentic. By analyzing Braddon’s portrayal of these dynamics, the article reveals how the concept of “queerness” in the novel triggers ambivalent responses toward non-normative subjects—both repelling and attracting them—and suggests that Victorian culture may have simultaneously rejected and acknowledged the possibility of tolerating such Otherness. Through this lens, Aurora Floyd illuminates how the history of “queer” as both a term of social deviance and a metaphor for counterfeit money reflects complex cultural negotiations of identity, value, and social inclusion.

키워드