Women, Popular Culture, and the Eighteenth Century

"In contemporary pop culture, the pursuits regarded as the most frivolous are typically understood to be more feminine in nature than masculine. This collection illustrates how ideas of the popular and the feminine were assumed to be equally naturally intertwined in the eighteenth century, and the ways in which that association facilitates the ongoing trivialization of both. Top scholars in eighteenth-century studies examine the significance of the parallel devaluations of women's culture and popular culture by looking at theatres and actresses; novels, magazines, and cookbooks; and populist politics, dress, and portraiture. They also assess how eighteenth-century women have been re-imagined in contemporary historical fiction, films, and television, from the works of award-winner Beryl Bainbridge to Darcymania and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. By reconsidering the cultural and social practices of eighteenth-century women, this fascinating volume reclaims the ostensibly trivial as a substantive cultural contribution."--Publisher's website Contents 5 Illustrations 9 Editor’s Preface 11 Part I: Performance, Fashion, and the Politics of the Popular 21 1. Historicizing the Popular and the Feminine: The Rape of the Lock and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies 21 2. ‘The Assemblage of every female Folly’: Lavinia Fenton, Kitty Clive, and the Genesis of Ballad Opera 45 3. Politics and Gender in a Tale of Two Plays 72 4. Celebrity Status: The Eighteenth- Century Actress as Fashion Icon 90 5. Fanning the Flames: Women, Fashion, and Politics 112 PART II: Women, Reading, and Writing 135 6. The Culinary Art of Eighteenth-Century Women Cookbook Authors 135 7. Women and Letters 153 8. Writing Bodies in Popular Culture: Eliza Haywood and Love in Excess 170 9. Women Reading and Writing for The Rambler 188 10. ‘The Most Dangerous Talent’: Riddles as Feminine Pastime 205 11. Comic Prints, the Picturesque, and Fashion: Seeing and Being Seen in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey 222 PART III: Eighteenth-Century Women in Modern Popular Culture 245 12. Mother and Daughter in Beryl Bainbridge’s According to Queeney 245 13. The Agency of Things in Emma Donoghue’s Slammerkin 262 14. ‘Would you have us laughed out of Bath?’: Shopping Around for Fashion and Fashionable Fiction in Jane Austen Adaptations 277 15. Visualizing Empire in Domestic Settings: Designing Persuasion for the Screen 294 16. From Pride and Prejudice to Lost in Austen and Back Again: Reading Television Reading Novels 312 Contributors 329 Index 333