I've been lurking on this list for sometime now, and I guess since
I'm going to FINALLY contribute, I might as well introduce myself.  I just
completed my PhD in English at Stanford (hence the reason for lurking and
not contributing -- the mad last six months of diss writing) and finished
a dissertation called "Under the Influence: Drink, Discourse and Narrative in
Victorian Britain."  Yes, it'll be a book within five to ten years, I hope.
Basically, I investigated the way temperance narrative operated at the level
of discourse, and the way the basic temperance plot evolved through several
popular medium -- from the didactic tale to popular culture to the Victorian
novel.  I could go on at LENGTH about this if anyone's interested, so feel
free to email me privately if you'd like.
 
        Anyway, on to violence, gender, etc. My small suggestion is that you
look at a published dissertation by Patricia Ann Dean called *The Meek Get in
Their Licks: Temperance Literature of the Early NIneteenth Century As An
Expression of Private Feminism* (U of Minnesota, 1981).  Yes, it is still
a diss and not a book, which has its drawbacks in polish (that's not intended
as severe criticism Patricia, if you're reading this!) like any dissertation,
but I think that she deals very interestingly with the whole idea of women
as victims.  One issue I did have with *The Meek...* was precisely that she
does dismiss the whole issue of female intemperance.  I haven't done as much
reading in American temp narrative as British, but I have a sense that maybe
female intemp was covered up somewhat by the American movement (contradict
me if that's an untrue assumption, please!  I'm very interested in finding
out about this) -- perhaps this is the reason that (or a deliberate
manuveur so that) the American movement could lead into a more coherent
women's movement.  In British temp tracts, intemp women have much more of
a presence, even though 75% of all temp authorities still claimed that
intemp women were irredeemable.
 
        I hope this helps somewhat.
 
        Christine Alfano
        Stanford University
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