ABSTRACT
Christina Rossetti's poem, Goblin Market, first published in 1862, suggests its location in the same intersection of imperialist culture and consumer capitalism that Nancy Armstrong elucidates for Alice in Wonderland. If Alice in Wonderland is structured on the 'problem' of female desire in the imperialist marketplace, then Rossetti's Goblin Market presents a startlingly different assessment of female sexual appetite. The work of the newly formed Anglican Sisterhoods proved to be inseparable from the 'work' of 'fallen women', producing an unprecedented mingling of 'pure' and 'tainted' women. Moreover, as Martha Vicinus has noted, the Anglican Sisterhoods empowered women, validating their work and values. The feminism and intense homoeroticism of Goblin Market are fully accountable when read intertextually with this unconventional 'social text' of the Victorian Anglican Church. Unlike the more successful All Saints' Sisterhood, the Park Village Sisterhood encountered many difficulties, finding itself at the center of fierce religious controversy in Christ Church.
