Unhoused

[Natasha]

Unhoused

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n10/eagl01_.html
5/15/2008

"There was also authorial cross-dressing, more usually from female to
male than vice versa. 'Examples of women choosing masculine pseudonyms
are legion,' Mullan remarks; 'it is much rarer to find men writing as
women.' Two distinguished exceptions were Daniel Defoe and Samuel
Richardson, who took shelter behind their female protagonists. The
Brontës are an obvious example of female writers posing as male, or at
least behind the carefully androgynous pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis and
Acton Bell; though in a lengthy account of the sisters' attempts to
beard the male-dominated publishing establishment, Mullan misses the
opportunity to relate this to the intricate cross-gendering in the
novels themselves."