ENG 405—Studies in Early Women Writers

Texts written by women of various nationalities and periods in a variety of genres up to 1800. For example: Prof. R. Mack, 18th Century British Women Writers Do women and men think and feel differently? In this course we will look at the importance of this question for British women writers from the end of the seventeenth century through the end of the eighteenth century. We will be concerned in particular with the role of women writers in the emergence of the novel. In the mid-eighteenth century, women began for the first time to publish in significantly large numbers. But these women experienced both the possibilities and limitations of their new positions; they were often told that they could only write texts on certain subjects or novels with certain kinds of characters. In this course, we will concentrate on how these women writers, engaged in charting their new social roles, represent their female characters thoughts and feelings, Specifically, we’ll ask how these writers deal with women’s usual consignment to the realm of feeling. Can the rational though so important for men’s roles in society also give heroines power, or must these fictional women obtain power of other kinds emotional or even economic? Are happy endings possible for intelligent heroines? Is there any alternative to an end in marriage?