This dissertation shows that Samuel Richardson significantly draws on the core moral themes of early English feminist discourse and rereads his novels in light of early feminist moral languages. The essential principles of early modern moral theories ...
This dissertation shows that Samuel Richardson significantly draws on the core moral themes of early English feminist discourse and rereads his novels in light of early feminist moral languages. The essential principles of early modern moral theories are outlined in Part 1, which discusses how proponents of female equality strategically used these principles to justify their claims. Part 1 also provides a brief historical summary of how early feminist arguments were formed. The first chapter first examines the late seventeenth-century English Querelle des Femmes pamphlets, which were based on the humanist scholarly traditions and Cartesianism. It then proceeds to discuss “Anglican Feminism,” which went hand in hand with efforts for the Anglican Reformation of Manners, and had a major impact on eighteenth-century feminist discourses. Chapter 2 analyzes the process by which the feminist agenda was integrated within the Anglican Church through the writings of Richard Allestree, Mary Astell, Joseph Addison, and Richard Steele. By examining the writings of eighteenth-century female authors like those of the Bluestocking Circle, Chapter 3 depicts the complicated and rich development of the Querelle and Anglican feminism in Richardson’s generation.
Part 2 focuses on the writings of Richardson. Chapter 4 presents a summary of Richardson’s early works, from those in the 1730s to Pamela. While writing as an apologist and moralist, Richardson became increasingly interested in the agenda of female cultivation and proceeded to translate it into the novel genre. Pamela was his first successful novel with a narrative structure based on the system of female deontology. Richardson began to weave early feminist themes into his fictions with Pamela 2, which borrowed heavily from female conduct books and periodical essays. Clarissa, discussed in Chapter 5, was a work that made extensive use of Anglican feminism for its plot and characters. The novel depicts the story of Clarissa’s passion and “triumph,” while revealing the absurdity of the female condition as argued by contemporary women of letters. The last two chapters deal with Sir Charles Grandison. By analyzing Harriet Byron and Clementina della Porretta, Chapter 6 demonstrates how early feminism and discourses of female moral reform persist in Sir Charles Grandison. Charles Grandison, the “Christian hero” mainly explored in Chapter 7, is not only presented as an ideal man, but also takes an active role in converting negative men as “rakes,” as his critique of dueling illustrates. Remarkably, Richardson’s ideal male protagonist jumps right into the Querelle near the end of the book. Charles’s guardianship position illustrates Richardson’s complex relationship with early feminism, allowing us to reflect on the limits of Richardson’s and early feminist moral languages.
The literary texts of the eighteeenth century were an amalgamation of diverse genres. From Pamela to Grandison, Richardson’s fictions were a genre experiment to incorporate forms and subjects of “polite” literature such as female conduct books and periodical essays into the romance and the novel. This highlights the necessity of understanding genre categories as dynamic and historical constructions. The intimate association between Richardson’s fictions and early feminist moral languages necessitates a thorough examination of the interaction between gender, moral languages, and genre in the eighteenth century. The moral discourses of the day, including early feminism, were sophisticated and rich in their own right, and Richardson actively used them in his innovation of the novel. By reconstructing the various linguistic contexts of the period and examining how novelists and (wo)men of letters used them, this study of eighteenth-century literature attempts a nuanced response to the question “What was the modern fiction”?