Houses in Victorian Novels

Approaching the house as a sign of identity from a semiotic point of view gives us the chance to investigate the way in which the house signifies on different levels. By approaching the concept of the Victorian house semiotically and culturally, we intend to emphasize such aspects as: generally, a house is a cultural product of a certain society in a certain age; the interactions and relationships among the inhabitants of the house and the inhabitants and outsiders support the concept of the Victorian house as both a private and a public space; these interactions and relationships are also indicators of social, domestic and moral hierarchies. We have chosen the semiotic approach as the main approach applied in our study because human semiotics supports in crossing the boundaries of academic disciplines.

Ioana Boghian is lecturer in English and American literature at "Vasile Alecsandri" University of Bacau, Romania. She holds a PhD in Philology from "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi, Romania. Her topics of interest are semiotics, cultural studies, and 19th-century English novels.