731 research outputs found
The 'true use of reading' : Sarah Fielding and mid eighteenth-century literary strategies.
No full textPhDThe aim of this thesis is to explore, by examining her life and
works, how Sarah Fielding (1710-68) established her identity as an author.
The definition of her role involves her notions of the functions of
writing and reading.
Sarah Fielding attempts to invite readers to form a sense of ties
by tacit understanding of her messages. As she believes that a work
of literature is produced through collaboration between the writer and
the reader, it is an important task in her view to show her attentiveness
toward reading practice. In her consideration of reading, she has two
distinct, even opposite views of her audience: on the one hand a familiar
and limited circle of readers with shared moral and cultural values and
on the other potential readers among the unknown mass of people. The
dual targets direct her to devise various strategies. She tries to
appeal to those who can endorse and appreciate her moral values as well
as her learning. Her writings and letters testify that she is sensitive
to the demands of the literary market, trying to lead the taste of readers
by inventing new forms.
The thesis opens with an overview of Sarah Fielding's career,
followed by a consideration of her critical attention to the roles of
reading. I go on to examine the narrative structures and strategies
she deploys, with a particular emphasis on her use of the epistolary
method. The following chapter deals with her attention to the reading
of the moral message tangibly embodied in her educational writing. It
is followed by an analysis of the activity which earned her a reputation
as a learned woman. Various as the forms of her works are, they invariably
reflect her attempt to balance herself between the two demands of
inventiveness and familiarity
Sarah Fielding: Satire and Subversion in the Eighteenth-Century Novel
No full textThis study of Sarah Fielding (1710―68) is an original contribution to Fielding scholarship that has a dual purpose: to support those who are striving to re-introduce her to the modern literary landscape in an effort to restore her eighteenth-century literary standing, and to firmly establish Fielding as an early feminist writer. It is argued here that throughout her oeuvre Fielding challenged prevailing traditions that denied women a choice, particularly in education, employment and marriage. These themes are also considered in the political treatises of Mary Astell (1666―1731) and Mary Wollstonecraft (1759―97), who are now widely recognised as feminist writers.
It is further argued that Fielding’s subversion in fiction of the English patriarchal system is underscored by her unorthodox performance in the literary arena. This is fully explored alongside her use of sentimentalism as a literary tool with which she challenges her seemingly inhumane society. Fielding’s interest in ‘the Labyrinths of the Mind’ (in modern terms, human psychology) will also be addressed as will her placement in the history of feminism and her placement in the sentimental novel tradition. Fielding’s performance as a literary critic will be compared with the few female authors who, like her, dared to publish literary criticism during her writing career. Accordingly, extracts from Fielding’s novels and her two critical pamphlets will be thoroughly examined.
An updated biography of Fielding that is also included here will provide evidence for a further claim, that her fiction is autobiographical in part. A comprehensive account of Fielding’s performance as a literary critic forms the final chapter of this work. It is the first full-length examination of her contribution to the genre and includes an appraisal of her recently unearthed critical pamphlet entitled A Comparison Between the Horace of Corneille and The Roman Father of Mr. Whitehead (1750) that is yet to be formerly attributed to her. Ultimately this study of Fielding will go far beyond what has previously been written about this remarkable eighteenth-century author, particularly regarding her feminist activity
100 Letters from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter, Elizabeth Montagu Correspondence Online (EMCO)
No full textEMCO's goal is to prepare a fully annotated electronic edition of Elizabeth Robinson Montagu’s correspondence. The author and bluestocking salonnière (1718-1800) was the leading woman of letters and artistic patron of her day. Montagu corresponded extensively with leaders of British Enlightenment coteries, such as Edmund Burke, Gilbert West, David Garrick and Horace Walpole, as well as the Bluestocking inner circle – Elizabeth Carter, Sarah Scott, Hannah More, Hester Thrale Piozzi, Frances Burney, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Elizabeth Vesey, and Frances Boscawen
A critical analysis of the plays of Sarah Daniels.
No full textAs one of the forerunners of 'second wave' feminist playwriting, Sarah Daniels has for the
past fifteen years been one of Britain's most prolific writers for the stage. This thesis is the
first to offer a detailed critical analysis of all her published plays along with a developmental
account of her career. My approach throughout is text-based and non-prescriptive,
although I do at certain points indicate where Daniels reflects or voices differing feminist
perspectives. I also consider, beginning in Chapter Three, the critical reception and
'gendered' reviewing the playwright has received over the years.
The thesis is organised into five chapters with an Afterword. Chapter One, the
Introduction, offers an overview of Daniels' career as well as certain key characteristics of
her work. In Chapter Two I analyse the early plays, Ripen Our Darkness, The Devil's
Gateway and Neaptide, and consider in particular how they reflect, along with other
women's playwriting at the time, certain ideals of the Women's Liberation Movement.
Chapter Three is devoted entirely to Masterpieces, Daniels' most controversial and, on
many levels, successful play to date. Chapter Four is an analysis of the 'history plays',
Byrthrite and The Gut Girls. In addition to giving voice to women traditionally silenced in
and by history, these plays (especially Byrthrite) also echo particular strands of modern
feminist debate. Chapter Five examines Daniels' plays of the 1990s (Beside Herself, Head-
Rot Holiday and The Madness of Esme and Shaz) with their central theme of 'women and
madness'. This is also a fitting theme with which to conclude the thesis as it brings together
and expands on the most significant motif running throughout the playwright's work. In the
Afterword I consider the effect of Esme and Shaz's critical reception on Daniels, as well as
her current 'work in progress'. Finally, the two Appendices provide a chronological table of
Daniels' productions and a list of subsequent professional productions as well as awards
Depression and Gender: The Expression and Experience of Melancholy in the Eighteenth Century
No full textThis thesis investigates the life and work of six eighteenth-century writers, two male and four female. It explores their experience of depression through their letters and other autobiographical material, and examines the ways in which they represent melancholy in their poetry and prose. The subject of Chapter Two is Thomas Gray, whose real life persona as the lonely intellectual is also identifiable in his poetry. The Scottish poet Robert Fergusson is studied in Chapter Three. Fergusson’s lively and vigorous mind was shattered in the months leading up to his death, during which time some of his writing became darkly nihilistic. Chapter Four looks at Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, a lifelong depressive who often wrote about her feelings of despair in her poetry. Chapter Five explores Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. She was a courageous and controversial figure, but despite her resilience, on occasion in her letters she reveals her vulnerability and susceptibility to low spirits, a mood which is sometimes expressed in her creative writing. Sarah Scott, whose life and work have not yet been considered in relation to the subject of melancholy, is examined in Chapter Six. Her novel includes several low-spirited and depressed female characters who are continually seeking asylum from a hostile world. Chapter Seven analyses Charlotte Smith, a mother of twelve children whose unhappy marriage ended in separation. Smith wrote extensively about her depression in her letters, prefaces, poetry and novels.
This study shows that the women in particular use their writing on melancholy and depression to express their discontent with the confined way in which they are often expected to live out their lives
Aspects of the history of the Catholic gentry of Yorkshire from the Pilgrimage of Grace to the First Civil War
No full textThis study looks at the responses of the Yorkshire Catholic gentry to the immense
changes to their religious landscape in the early modem period, between 1536 and
1642. It examines how they continued to adhere to the Catholic religion, despite all
attempts first to induce and then compel conformity and highlights the ways in which
they managed to survive and prosper throughout the period, demonstrating that
previously neglected groups such as women and younger sons had a crucial role to
play in this process. The overwhelming theme to their actions was one of pragmatism,
rather than the heroic and self-destructive behaviour that was much admired by earlier
historians who wanted to identify martyrs to the Catholic cause.
The areas that are to be examined reflect both public and private gentry activities. In
the public sphere the Yorkshire gentry's part in the rebellions of the Tudor and Stuart
eras are studied along with their rejection of plots. The importance of marriage as an
early modem tool for building alliances and social advancement is acknowledged and
the impact that a continuing adherence to Catholicism had on this is considered. The
gentry and the church are examined through a study of the Catholic gentry's
involvement with their local parishes, their reaction to the dissolution and their
continuing adherence to monasticism, as shown through their devotion to English
orders on the continent. To reflect the changes that were occurring in this period
Catholic involvement in education, the law and medicine are also explored showing
that the Catholic community was not isolated from the wider society. Lastly the role
of Catholic women is given specific consideration in order both to redress the
imbalance in previous studies and due to the crucial role that women played in the
continuation of the Catholic community within Yorkshire
Women's life writing 1760-1830 : spiritual selves, sexual characters, and revolutionary subjects
No full textPhDThis thesis uses print and manuscript sources to analyse and interpret women's life
writing at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries. I
explore printed works by Catharine Phillips, Mary Dudley, Priscilla Hannah Gurney,
Ann Freeman, Elizabeth Steele, Mary Robinson, Helen Maria Williams, Mary
Wollstonecraft, Grace Dalrymple Elliott, and Charlotte West and discuss the
manuscripts of Mary Fletcher, Mary Tooth, Sarah Ryan, and Elizabeth Fox. Of these
sources, five have never been analysed in the critical literature and six have received
little attention. Considered as a group, this large corpus of texts offers new insights
into the personal and political implications of different models of female selfhood and
social being.
In chapter one, I compare the religious identities presented in the spiritual
autobiographies of Quakers and Methodists. For these women, religious identification
provides a powerful sense of social belonging and enables public participation.
However, it may also lead to a loss of self in the demand for religious conformity and
self-abnegation. In chapter two, I consider the life writing of late eighteenth-century
courtesans. These women adapt available models of femininity and female authorship
in order to establish themselves as socially connected subjects. However, their
narratives also reveal that dependence on the sexual and literary marketplace puts
female selfhood under pressure. In chapter three, I explore the eyewitness accounts of
British women in the French Revolution. I argue that, for these writers, connecting
personal identity to political history is an enabling source of self-definition but it also
exposes them to the risks of self-fragmentation.
In my focus on the social function of women's life writing, I present an alternative to
the traditional alignment of the eighteenth-century autobiographical subject with the
autonomous self of individualism. These narratives allow us to reconsider the
productive and problematic dialectic between personal expression and representative
selfhood, self-authorship and collective narratives, and individualism and social
being. They suggest that women's life writing has the potential to be both the self-expression
of a unique heroine and the self-inscription of a politicised subject
'Stand by your man': women's political recruitment at the 2010 UK general election
No full textThe year 2010 constituted a favourable opportunity for the greater descriptive representation of women in the UK Parliament. The parties were publicly competing over the issue; Parliament had its own Committee looking at it; and there were plenty of vacancies for candidates in each of the parties’ held seats, as many more MPs than usual stood down. The outcome was disappointing. There was an overall increase in the number of women MPs – up from 128 to 142 – but this was only a 2.5 per cent increase on 2005. Inter-party differences remain. The Liberal Democrats witnessed a decline in the number and percentage of their women MPs and candidates; the Tories saw a doubling of their number, with women now constituting 16 per cent of their parliamentary party; and Labour has both the largest number and percentage of women MPs. These patterns are best explained by the parties’ different attitudes towards equality guarantees – measures that, all other things being equal, return women MPs to Parliament. In other words, Labour's All Women Shortlists once again delivered. The other parties’ efforts were simply less efficient at translating women candidates into MPs. Looking to the future, the picture is far from rosy. The Coalition's plans for political reform will likely increase competition for selection at the next general election to women's detriment, and the impact of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority raises the possibility that their supply might decrease too
The Moorean Oculus: Observations of the Unconventional in the Late Works of Marianne Moore
No full textMarianne Moore, modernist poet, left behind drafts of poetry within her various numbers of notebooks which are preserved in the Marianne Moore Digital Archive. Incorporating these early drafts of her work allows for a more complete picture on the background thought and inspiration behind the poems themselves. Her mental state and drive for writing the poetry is also able to be presented within the analysis itself. Within "An Expedient," Moore's depression can be noted through certain articulations of emotion surrounding the drafts of the poetry. Analyzing the figures of Saint Jerome, who translated the bible into Latin from the Greek, and in analyzing the figure of Leonardo Da Vinci, one can see Moore's interest in ascetic manners of living which are manifested in her own choice to be a celibate woman. The figures and analysis of these figures also allow for the contribution of a queer archive, where the numerous manifestations of human sexuality exist. As Moore pushed the boundaries of what a poem could be, she also pushed for greater understanding of little written-of figures, at least within a poetic context, to foster advancement for herself and for poetry as it continued to evolve and continues to evolve into the 21st century.English, Department ofHonors Colleg
The works of Mary Birkett Card 1774-1817 originally collected by her son Nathaniel Card in 1834: an edited transcription with an introduction to her life and works in two volumes
No full textThis thesis makes available the writings of Mary Birkett Card, a Dublin Quaker,
as collected by her son Nathaniel Card in 1834. It provides an annotated
transcription of the manuscript collection, with textual and editorial notes, and
an introduction recovering her life within her cultural community. The writings
consist of a spiritual autobiography, 43 religious letters, other prose pieces and
over 220 poems. Two poems were published in her lifetime: A Poem on the
African Slave Trade (1792) and Lines to the Memory of our Late Esteemed and
Justly Valued Friend Joseph Williams (1807).
The introduction is in three parts. Part 1 offers a biographical outline and sets
Mary Birkett Card's childhood poems in the context of the Quaker community in
which she grew up. Part 2 explores her autobiography, questioning concepts
of a separate female autobiographical tradition. It then investigates her
encounter with 'deist' thought, and later conflicts, after her marriage. These
concern money (seeking to reconcile the spiritual and material) and issues of
language and gender (a desire for'a pure language', linked to constraints upon
women's speech). Part 3 contrasts her 1790s verse with her later poems, and
epistles, arguing that embedded within these works as a whole lies a struggle
with her literary imagination.
Throughout, the writings are set within the context of contemporary literary
forms in poetry, Quaker writing and women's writing. They are considered in
relation to now current critical debates - on public and private spheres,
autobiography, abolitionist verse, women's intimate friendships, domesticity,
philanthropy and sensibility. It is shown that Mary Birkett Card's literary
creativity was intimately connected with her Quakerism, and, moreover, with
attempts to negotiate an ideal of Quaker womanhood. One important aspect is
the challenge her work poses to assumptions, still generally prevalent, about
Quaker women's far greater autonomy within marriage in comparison to
women in society at large
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