Decoding Anne Lister
From the Archives to ‘Gentleman Jack'

The ground-breaking first collection of essays on Anne Lister, featuring both established and new scholars, a screenwriter and a novelist.

Caroline Gonda (Edited by), Chris Roulston (Edited by)

9781009280747, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 February 2025

302 pages
22.8 x 15 x 1.6 cm, 0.44 kg

'… packed with incisive analyses of Lister's life, writing, and context.' Noah Chaskin, Eighteenth-Century Studies

This is the first edited collection of essays on the nineteenth-century diarist Anne Lister. Now recognized as a UNESCO world heritage document, Lister's five-million-word diaries are paradigm-shifting in terms of their range of material, from social commentary and politics to breath-taking travel accounts. However, they have become most well-known for their explicit descriptions of same-sex practices, written in code and constituting a significant portion of their content. The essays here address the variety and interdisciplinarity of the diaries: Lister's negotiations with her own 'odd' identity, her multiple same-sex relationships, her involvement in politics and her lifelong thirst for knowledge. It also addresses Lister studies in popular culture through the successful Gentleman Jack BBC-HBO series, including an interview with Sally Wainwright and foreword by author Emma Donoghue. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

Introduction Chris Roulston
1. Caroline Gonda in conversation with Helena Whitbread
Part I. Nature was in an Odd Freak When She Made Me: Lister, Sexuality, Gender and Natural History: 2. A regular oddity: natural history and Anne Lister's Queer theory of tradition Laurie Shannon
3. Anne Lister's search for the anatomy of sex Anna Clark
Part II. My Spirit's Oil: Lister Reading, Lister Writing: 4. My use of the word love: lister, language and the dictionary Stephen Turton
5. Self-conscious closeting and paradoxical writing in Anne Lister's diaries Caroline Baylis-Green
Part III. Born at Halifax: Lister's Politics, Local and Global: 6. Anne Lister's politics Susan S. Lanser
7. Building castles in the air: Anne Lister and associational life Cassandra Ulph
8. Anne Lister's home Angela Clare
Part IV. Curious Scenes: Lister's Travels: 9. The art of travelling requires an apprenticeship: Anne Lister's diaries and travel Kirsty McHugh
10. Traveling in the caucasus, traveling in time: decoding biography as genre Angela Steidele
Part V. I Beg to be Remembered: Lister, Public History and Popular Culture: 11. Labels, plaques and identity categories: finding the words for Anne Lister Caroline Gonda
12. From Anne Lister to gentleman Jack: queer temporality, fandom and the gains and losses of adaptation Chris Roulston
13. Emma Donoghue in Conversation with Sally Wainwright
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]