Women Writers
of the Restoration and
the Eighteenth Century
Spring 2009, Thursday 12-14, Phil. 017
Fulfils BA5, BA6 or BA7 requirements
Erzsi Kukorelly
Office hour Tuesday 14.15-15.15 CO 209
elizabeth.kukorelly@unige.ch Tel. 078.727.2268
Texts:
1. A reader that will be made available at TEX copy shop
2. Frances Burney. Evelina. Oxford World’s Classics edition.
Participation:
Active participation is required from all students. Although not formally graded, in-class participation, enthusiasm
and good preparation for class may be taken into consideration when giving grades, either for papers or for
exams, as well as when giving attestations.
During class, your book is open on the desk, and bears the marks of interactive reading. You are prepared to
take risks and you contribute to but do not dominate the discussion. Although you listen to your colleagues and
your teacher with due respect, sincere and politely expressed disagreement is encouraged.
Attendance:
If you miss more than 2 seminar sessions without valid excuse (medical certificate), you will not receive credit for
this seminar.
Plagiarism:
This institution will not tolerate plagiarism, which is a crime. The statement on plagiarism is available on the
department website.
Formal requirements:
a. All participants must give an oral report – modalities will be communicated during the first few weeks of class.
b. An essay, either graded or ungraded, depending on your modular requirements; see website for modalities and
deadlines (all written work must comply with the guidelines laid down in the departmental Style Sheet. If you have
any doubts, consult me or one of the writing lab monitors) OR
c. An exam; see website for modalities and deadlines.
**STUDENTS MUST GET IN TOUCH WITH ME TO DISCUSS ALL PROJECTS BEFORE BEGINNING WORK.**
Seminar goals:
a. To become acquainted with a selection of women writers from the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
in themselves and as part of an evolving tradition.
b. To understand the issues involved with women writing professionally: authorship and authority, publication and
publicity.
c. To become familiar with some aspects of the emergence of the novel.
Schedule of Reading (all texts apart from Evelina are in the reader):
Class 1, 19/02/2009
INTRODUCTION
Class 2, 26/02/2009
Aphra Behn, The History of the Nun (1688)
a. What elements of language can you identify that are “amorous”? What is the link with subjectivity,
psychological depth?
b. What elements of female authorship or authority can you identify in the text?
Delarivière Manley, The Secret History of Queen Zara (1705)
c. What is the effect of Manley’s writing about issues of genre in the prefatory paratext? What is the effect on
reading?
d. How does the “secret history” genre reflect on female writing authority?
Class 3, 05/03/2009
Jane Barker, Love Intrigues (1713)
a. Subterfuge, disguised feelings: how are these are central to the narrative? to its ethical economy?
b. How does the protagonist’s writing fit into the story? how does she present herself as a writer?
c. How do the references to Aesop’s Fables build the theme of the novel?
d. What does the first person narration bring to the novel?
Penelope Aubin, The Adventures of the Count de Vinevil (1721)
e. Is Ardelisa different from the female protagonists we have encountered so far?
f. What is the moral economy of the novel?
Class 4, 12/03/2009
Mary Davys, The Reformed Coquet (1724)
a. Think about the narrator in this novel.
b. How does Amoranda’s education prepare her for life? Compare this to the passage on p. 275 where her
education is furthered, and that on p. 303 when she claims it has been completed.
c. How does female autonomy function in the novel? Is it empowering? dangerous?
d. What is the role of writing in Altemira’s story?
e. What use does the narrative make of Lord Lofty’s views on marriage?
f. Consider the use of disguise in the novel. Is it believable?
Class 5, 19/03/2009
Eliza Haywood, Fantomina (1725)
a. What can you say about female authority in Fantomina?
b. How successful is the protagonist? Is the end of the story credible? Does it impose social morality?
c. What is the effect of including letters in the narrative?
Eliza Haywood, extracts from The Wife (1755)
d. How does Haywood’s “wife” exercise authority?
e. What can you say about the style of the extracts from The Wife? How do they compare to Fantomina? What
types of writing authority does Haywood deploy?
Class 6, 26/03/2009
Eliza Haywood, The Female Spectator no. 1 (1744)
a. How is the writing authority constructed here?
b. What is the function of this sort of text?
c. What can you say about the presumed effect of reading? what does this imply about authorial social
responsibility?
d. What is the problem with masquerades?
e. What can you say about Haywood’s evolution as a professional writer?
Class 7, 02/04/2009
Frances Burney, Evelina (1778), up to p. 102 (end Letter XXI, I)
a. Comment on the prefatory paratexts (poem, letter, preface)
b. Although Evelina is the main correspondent in the novel, the first exchange of letters is between Mr. Villars and
Lady Howard. What does this do for the narrative? For establishing narrative voice and writing authority?
c. On p. 26, Evelina equates her ‘pen’ and her ‘thoughts’. How do you interpret this?
d. Writing about London, its leisure activities, its fashions, its habits: entertainment or instruction?
e. Mrs. Duval challenges Evelina: ‘And pray who are you, to dare to disobey me?’ (87). Think about Evelina as an
object of disputed authority.
Class 8, 09/04/2009
Frances Burney, Evelina, pp. 102-208 (end Letter XV, II)
a. Think about the discussion on p. 110 about what young women are and are not qualified to speak of in terms
of writing authority. What domains does Evelina show herself to be qualified to speak about?
b. What is the problem with Evelina’s claiming her parentage and the advantages that go with it?
c. Think about the way in which Burney writes about the social spectrum in this novel. What groups do you
identify?
d. ‘How disagreeable an evening’s adventure!’ remarks Evelina about the Vauxhall sequence (208). What are the
functions of this episode?
BREAK
Class 9, 23/04/2009
Frances Burney, Evelina, pp. 208-309 (end Letter VI, III)
a. By now we have been introduced to a number of men who could be prospective husbands for Evelina. What
can you say about their suitability? About the way in which Evelina negotiates her acquaintance with them?
b. Burney is known for her acute sensibility to linguistic variation. What incidences of this can you identify? What
is the effect on her (and Evelina’s) authority as writers?
c. When Evelina rereads the letter from Lord Orville, she finds ‘every word changed’ (258). What is the value of
words? of writing? of reading? of writing as a reflection of character?
d. Evelina claims to have understood ‘how requisite are birth and fortune to the attainment of respect and civility’
(294). Is this true in the social landscape of the novel?
e. ‘I am new to the world, and unused to acting for myself, -- my intentions are never wilfully blameable, yet I err
perpetually’ (306). Relate this to the function of the novel, and to the issue of female authorship.
Class 10, 30/04/2009
Frances Burney, Evelina, pp. 310-406 (end of novel)
a. How does Lady Louisa function in the narrative? And Mrs. Selwyn?
b. What can you say about Lord Orville’s description of Evelina on pp. 346-347?
c. How does the dénouement of the narrative reflect on Burney’s writerly authority? Is the novel, with its complex
and interwoven strands of event and psychology, a particularly appropriate genre for female writerly authority?
d. What is the effect of ending the novel with Mr. Villars’s letter?
Class 11, 05/05/2009
Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary, a Fiction (1788)
a. Consider what the author writes in the ‘Advertisement’. Why does she subtitle her text a Fiction?
b. What can you say about Mary’s mother?
c. Consider Mary’s early education, her reading. Does it prepare her for her life to come?
d. How does the narrative use social commentary?
e. On p. 21, Mary revolts against asking her husband to consent to her planned voyage. Why?
f. What is the significance of Mary’s love of and sensibility to nature?
g. On p. 28, Mary writes that she has been ‘given in with an estate’ – what does this mean?
h. How well-founded is Mary’s dislike of her husband? How present is her husband in the narrative?
i. How do you interpret Mary’s disavowal of accepted conduct (‘the maxims of worldly wisdom … the cold dictates
of worldly prudence’ 38)?
j. Are there any similarities between this novel and some of the earliest ones we read? What are the differences?
k. ‘Not live with your husband! How will you live then?’ (46). How does this reflect on contemporary thoughts
about female independence?
l. How does the novel seem to be positioned with regards to Mary’s late charitable activities (61)?
Class 12, 14/05/2009
CONCLUSION