Writing Against the Grain

One of the common features developed in Victorian literature after 1960s share one idea i.e. oppositional idea' or 'oppositional in nature' i.e. the common feature is 'writing against the grain'.

Through different critical evaluations, the emphasis is being given in the oppositional; the new position is a minority position that it runs counter, to established institutional positions. Deconstructive reading, either by Hillis Miller, or by de Man, is focusing  on blurring the  distinctions between high and low, greater or smaller, masculine or feminine and so on. In 'writing against the grain, the greater contribution has been paid by feminist scholars; they have opened the veil and studied the position of women in Victorian time, which was explicitly opposite to the then Victorian canonical writers.

One of the most important examples of this development can be traced in D.A. Miller's The Novel and the Police where he writes against the grain by being near with Foucault that no author can write anything other than what the culture requires, so nothing is aesthetic culture. Another example of "writing against the grain” is the shift of focus on the working class from high and elite class.

Hence, the rereading of Victorian studies carries one common idea that is writing oppositionally or writing against the grain.