The Feminization Debate in Eighteenth-Century England : Literature, Commerce and Luxury (Palgrave Studies in the Enlightenment, Romanticism and the Cultures of Print

In the Eighteenth-century, critics of capitalism denounced the growth of luxury and effeminacy; supporters applauded the increase of refinement and the improved status of women. This pioneering study explores the way the association of commerce and femininity permeated cultural production. It looks at the first use of a female author as an icon of modernity in the Athenian Mercury , and reappraises works by Elizabeth Singer Rowe, Mandeville, Defoe, Pope and Elizabeth Carter. Samuel Richardson's novels represent the culmination of the English debate, while contemporary essays by David Hume move towards a fully-fledged enlightenment theory of feminization. In the eighteenth century, critics of capitalism denounced the growth of luxury and effeminacy while others celebrated the increase of refinement and the improved status of women. This pioneering study demonstrates the way the association of commerce and femininity permeated cultural production. It looks at the first use of a female author as an icon of modernity in the Athenian Mercury in the 1690s, reappraises misogynist representations in the work of Mandeville, Defoe and Pope in the light of the stock market crash of 1720, and considers in detail the turbulent careers of the poets Elizabeth Singer Rowe and Elizabeth Carter. The novels of Samuel Richardson represent the culmination of the English debate, while contemporary essays by David Hume move towards a fully-fledged enlightenment theory of feminization. Clery's book is essential reading not only for students of eighteenth-century literature, but for those interested in the emergence of commercial ideology and the evolution of theories of gender In The 18th Century, Critics Of Capitalism Denounced The Growth Of Luxury And Effeminacy; Supporters Applauded The Increase Of Refinement And The Improved Status Of Women. This Study Explores The Way The Association Of Commerce And Femininity Permeated Cultural Production. Sexual Alchemy In The Coffee-house -- The Athenian Mercury And The Pindarick Lady -- The South Sea Bubble And The Resurgence Of Misogyny : Cato, Mandeville And Defoe -- Elizabeth Carter In Pope's Garden : Literary Women Of The 1730s -- Clarissa And The Total Revolution In Manners -- Out Of The Closet : Richardson And The Cult Of Literary Women -- Coda : From Discourse To A Theory Of Feminization In The Essays Of David Hume. By E.j. Clery. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 215-226) And Index. In the Eighteenth Century, critics of capitalism denounced the growth of luxury and effeminacy supporters applauded the increase of refinement and the improved status of women. This pioneering study explores the way the association of commerce and femininity permeated cultural production. It looks at the first use of a female author as an icon of modernity in the Athenian Mercury, and reappraises works by Elizabeth Singer Rowe, Mandeville, Defoe, Pope and Elizabeth Carter. Samuel Richardson's novels represent the culmination of the English debate, while contemporary essays by David Hume move t Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction....Pages 1-12 Sexual Alchemy in the Coffee-House....Pages 13-25 The Athenian Mercury and the Pindarick Lady....Pages 26-50 The South Sea Bubble and the Resurgence of Misogyny: Cato, Mandeville and Defoe....Pages 51-73 Elizabeth Carter in Pope’s Garden: Literary Women of the 1730s....Pages 74-94 Clarissa and the ‘Total Revolution in Manners’....Pages 95-131 Out of the Closet: Richardson and the Cult of Literary Women....Pages 132-170 Coda: From Discourse to a Theory of Feminization in the Essays of David Hume....Pages 171-178 Back Matter....Pages 179-234 Machine generated contents note: List of IllustrationsIntroduction1. Changing the Subject: Aesthetic Displacement, Museum Display, and the French Revolution in The Prelude2. Facing History: Galleries and Portraits in Waverley's Historiography3. Reframing the National Imagination in Maria Edgeworth's Harrington4. Carving Out the Public Sphere: Romantic Literary Periodicals and the Elgin MarblesEpilogueBibliographyIndex. Material Culture and Sedition, 1688-1760 is a groundbreaking study of the ways in which material culture (and its associated designs, rituals and symbols) was used to avoid prosecution for treason and sedition in the British Isles. The fresh theoretical model it presents challenges existing accounts of the public sphere and consumer culture. This book argues that Romantic-era writers used the figure of the minstrel to imagine authorship as a social, responsive enterprise unlike the solitary process portrayed by Romantic myths of the lone genius. Simpson highlights the centrality of the minstrel to many important literary developments from the Romantic era through to the 1840s. Friendship and Allegiance explores the concept of friendship as it was defined, contested and distorted by writers of the early eighteenth century. Setting well-known canonical texts (The Beggar's Opera, Gulliver's Travels) alongside lesser-known works, it portrays a literary world renegotiating the meaning of public and private virtue.