"Could someone else's hand have sawn that trunk and dragged the frame away?": Laudy Audley's Secret as a revision of Homer's Odyssey
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The Department of English seeks to provide all university students with the skills of effective communication and critical thinking, as well as imparting knowledge of literature, creative writing, linguistics, speech and technical communication to students within and outside of the department.
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The Department of English and Speech was formed in 1939 from the merger of the Department of English and the Department of Public Speaking. In 1971 its name changed to the Department of English.
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1939-present
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- Department of English and Speech (1939-1971)
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- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (parent college)
- Department of English (predecessor, 1898-1939)
- Department of Public Speaking (predecessor, 1898-1939)
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Abstract
Mary Elizabeth Braddon' s Lady Audley' s Secret (1861) is a novel that has been largely marginalized by the critical community. This marginalization is seen in the scarcity of articles dedicated to Braddon, and the tendency to quickly label her work as "detective" or "sensational" fiction. And while these generic elements are definitely worth recognizing, one needs to look no further than the Select Bibliography in the Oxford edition to find the pigeon hole Braddon' s work has been placed in. I believe that Braddon was working with much more artistic range than the "melodrama" she is given credit for, and that her elaborate use of classical myth is one of her overlooked achievements. Lady Audley's Secret not only illustrates Braddon's knowledge of Homer's Odyssey, but also her active restructuring of the epic and its male archetype.