Breaking the Frame of Patriarchal Narratives: Wayward Reading, Feminist Resistance, and the Subversion of Gendered Realism in the Fictional Worlds of Charles Dickens and George Eliot

The feminist approach to this paper reinvents the realist fiction of Charles Dickens and George Eliot. Employing the framework of the so-called wayward reading, relying on a set of feminist theory, post-colonialism theories, and global justice concepts, this paper addresses the issues of how Victorian realism encompasses both the acknowledgment and the refusal of the standards of patriarchal order. The paper shows how female characters express subtle rebellions, performance, and agency. Using a close reading of Bleak House, Oliver Twist, Middlemarch, and The Mill on the Floss, this study demonstrates that feminist potentials exist in classic literature, after all, when explored in a new perspective. Placed within the larger context of SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women), Victorian realism, instead of being an outdated relic, offers a valuable resource for exploring today's gender issues.