The sodomitical muse: Fanny Hill and the rhetoric of crossdressing

Cleland's Fanny Hill, banned for centuries largely as a result of a passage depicting male sodomy, has been the focus of several critical approaches since it was republished in the United States in 1963. Critical readings by Nancy K. Miller and Randolph Trumbach in particular indicate that Fanny's persona itself is a "drag" act. While asserting this, no critic has traced the textual complexity of this persona, which is apparent in Cleland's use of figurative language and is accessible through close reading only.