The family and political theory: Rehearsing old dilemmas

In this chapter and the two that follow, I move away from questions to do with the representational modes of Victorian fiction, and the metaphysical stance implicit in or propagated by those modes. For alongside the imposing battery of arguments against the novel on these fronts, politicized criticism has marshalled forceful objections against its subject matter.

Foremost among these is the objection to the ‘personal’ focus of Victorian fiction. Various allegations have been made against this focus. It is said to divert readers' attention away from political problems and political solutions towards a preoccupation with ‘human nature’ – a trans-historical notion that, far from reflecting anything outside the structures of language and power, serves to curtail political critique. It is also said to perpetuate the arch-ideological illusion that it is people, rather than political structures, that make history; in other words, that human subjects are ontologically prior to, rather than mere effects of discourse. And, finally, it is said to reinforce the deep division in Victorian ideology and practice between the private and the social, and by doing so to facilitate the strategic displacement of criticism away from the latter.