ABSTRACT
In the late 1960s through the 1970s, a few intrepid scholars – Robert Polhemus, Ruth apRoberts, James Kincaid, Juliet McMaster, Reginald Terry, and Robert Tracy – arguably changed the way Anthony Trollope’s work was subsequently read. Hitherto, Trollope was assumed too frequently to be a Victorian novelist of huge popular appeal, but of no academic significance. This generation of critics refocused our attention, emphasizing not just his skilled craftsmanship but also his substantial and nuanced art. Since then Trollope has received the long-overdue attention his work demands, as scholars have increasingly recognised how his writing is illuminated by the perspectives of disciplines across the humanities, social sciences – and of late the natural sciences, particularly Darwin studies. Today, Trollope is examined from the point of view of economic theory, sociology, emerging scientific thinking in psychology, gender studies, critical theory, ecocriticism, and postcolonial studies, plus very new ideologies, such as food studies and illustration studies, emerging fields where Trollope is a central source of material. With breadth of scholarship has also come a new depth in terms of close reading and analysis of Trollope in relation to narrative theory and technique.
