Issues of Gender in the Eighteenth-Century: A Syllabi Exchange
The Aphra Behn Society at ASECS, 1998

Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature: The Politics of Seduction

Cynthia Richards
Wittenberg University
Spring 1996

The description of the course reads as follows:

In the eighteenth century, the figure of a seduced, betrayed, and abandoned heroine occasioned more than simple scandal. In the work of canonical male writers such as Alexander Pope, Samuel Richardson, and Henry Fielding, women's chastity served as an important counter in the moral battle between middle class ambition and waning aristocratic privilege. While in the work of women writers such as Aphra Behn, Eliza Haywood, and Mary Manley, the plight of the seduced maiden served to sanction their own self-expression and allowed for the increasing prominence of the female reader in the literary marketplace. But by the mid eighteenth century, the language of sentimentalism often associated with the figure of the betrayed woman had once again become the language of male privilege, appropriated by many pre-Romantic poets and such novelists as Laurence Sterne. By the late eighteenth century, however, openly political writers such as Mary Wollstonecraft, and Mary Hays used this figure of the seduced heroine to question patriarchal society and women's role in it. At a time in which young women's sexuality (e.g., teenage pregnancy) has become once again the subject of civic debate and public policy, the ³politics of seduction² in the eighteenth century has a lot to teach us.

How this description translates into course content:

The course will be divided into four sections. In the first, we will look at the libertine tradition of seduction prominent in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. In the libertine tradition, one could say "anything goes." The rakish young man of privilege seduces, the young woman is willingly seduced, and the system serves both to assert the "heroism" of its male figure and, ironically, the virtue of certain exceptional women. The texts I have chosen for this section look at this tradition at its most complex: Aphra Behn lauds both rakish young men and rakish young women; Alexander Pope mocks this tradition while at the same time immortalizing it; and Daniel Defoe provides a transitional portrait of a young woman who is first seduced and betrayed, but then learns to use the power of seduction to her own advantage in a highly competitive marketplace of marriage. Several shorter poems from this period will also point to a growing anxiety about gender during this time of sexual exploration.

In the second section, we will look at the new language of virtue as it evolved for both men and women in the mid eighteenth century. In highly influential novels such as Pamela and Clarissa, Samuel Richardson used the figure of a "seduced" heroine to argue for the need to reform the rakish male subject and, in the process, a libertine tradition of aristocratic privilege. Representing both middle class and puritan values, Richardson argued for the integrity of the inner self as opposed to the external values associated with class status. The figure of a chaste heroine impenetrable to outside "seductions" came to symbolize that integrity. (Earlier female novelists such as Jane Barker and Mary Davys were less optimistic about the potential for women to achieve power through mere denial and we will examine briefly Richardson's "reading" of their complex doubts. ) In contrast, Henry Fielding found Richardson's faith in both a woman's chastity and a person's integrity somewhat laughable and openly mocked Richardson in Shamela and Joseph Andrews while at the same time re-asserting aristocratic values.

In the third section, we will look at the reformed male subject of the mid to late eighteenth century, a figure who becomes "heroic" not through any external deeds on the battlefield nor for that matter in the bedroom, but through his depth of feeling­a quality that had only previously been associated with the much distressed heroine. In A Sentimental Journey, Laurence Sterne gives us a playful portrait of this new sentimental man, one who continues his amorous pursuits but now with a ready handkerchief by his side. We will move from Sterne's sentimental novel to the sentimental poetry of this period, what may seem at first glance something of a detour from the theme of seduction. Yet pre-Romantic poets such a William Collins and Thomas Gray often felt "betrayed" and "abandoned" by their period in history and looked inward for both their strength and inspiration­the typical posture of the seduced heroine.

In the fourth section, we will look primarily at two openly political women writers of the late eighteenth century, Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Hays. Both associated with Enlightenment ideals and supporters of the French revolution, they sought to expose the fallacies of an old aristocratic and patriarchal system. In their work then, "seduction" emerges as simply a discreet term for rape and women's redeeming virtue merely the means of their enslavement. Once again, we will also examine several short pieces that reflect on a continued, but now openly politicized, anxiety about gender­an anxiety, as this course repeatedly asserts, played out through the trope of seduction.

How the course translates into practice (e.g., what we will do everyday):

As this course is a seminar, one of its pleasures will be its small size. There are currently 11 students enrolled and I believe this number is ideal for providing both a rich variety of perspectives and for promoting an intimate working environment. The course itself will be discussion based and 10% of your grade will be based on your class participation. I intend to act as your guide ­to provide historical, cultural, and theoretical context to our readings­but you will be largely responsible for our discussions. For example, a typical class might begin with me giving approximately 20 minutes of background material and then move on to a discussion of the material (in response to a central organizing question) in large or small groups.

In addition to participating in class discussions, you will also be asked at some point in the semester to "teach" a text not assigned in the course, but related to its themes. The purpose of this assignment is twofold: 1) to provide you an opportunity to lead class discussion and to become the expert on that particular text; and 2) to introduce a broader range of readings into the class (without everyone having to read another long eighteenth-century novel!). In your teaching of this text, you will be asked to explain its relevance to our course and how it further elucidates and/or complicates our theme. You will need to provide a detailed context for and summary of the text, select several key passages that illustrate a relevant theme, and then direct our discussion of these passages. A week after you teach the text in class, you will be asked to submit a 4-5 page analytical paper exploring in detail how this text further develops the themes of our course. In addition to our course work, I want this class to be an opportunity for you to work independently on ideas that interest you (an opportunity I realize that is far too rare in our major.) Hence, the primary assignment for this course will be a documented essay (8-12 pages) on a subject related to the course, but of your own choosing. You will be presenting a shorter version of this paper to your classmates at the end of the semester. Although this presentation will be formal, it is also intended to give you the opportunity to receive early feedback on both the content and the organization of your paper.

There will also be a take-home midterm (first _ of the semester) and final exam (second _ of the semester.)

How what we do in class translates into grades:

What texts the course requires:

Aphra Behn, Oroonoko, The Rover, and Other Works (Penguin)
Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders (Norton)
Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews with Shamela (Norton)
Mary Hays, The Victim of Prejudice (Broadview)
Roger Lonsdale, ed., The New Oxford Book of Eighteenth-Century Verse
Samuel Richardson, Clarissa (Riverside)
Samuel Richardson, Pamela (Riverside)
Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey (Penguin)
Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman (Norton)

On reserve: Jane Barker, Love Intrigues (selections); Mary Davys, An Accomplished Rake (selections): Eliza Haywood, Love in Excess (selections); Mary Manley, The New Atlantis ("The New Cabal")

Other information you need to know:

All papers should be typed or word-processed, doubled spaced, with one inch margins on non- erasable paper.

Late papers will not be accepted unless you notify me before class and have a legitimate excuse.

More than four unexcused absences will lower your grade- a degree for every class.

Syllabus

* Given that Haywood's Love in Excess (Broadview) is now available, I might in future versions of this course substitute the full text for the oral reports or for the selected poetry.

** Given that Barker's Love Intrigues (Oxford) and Davys' works (University of Kentucky) are now available, I might in future versions of this course include these full texts (and only include excerpts from Fielding's Joseph Andrews).

Richards The Politics of Seduction

Midterm Examination

Please respond to the following two assignments:

1. Here's the scenario:

• An unmarried woman is alone and apparently unprotected. She meets a young man who is a stranger to her or with whom she has only a brief acquaintance.
• She initially perceives him as a threat.
• What happens then is up to you.

Rewrite this scene, adding a development and resolution, as three of the authors we have read thus far would have done (e.g., Aphra Behn, Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, and Samuel Richardson). Before you start each imitation, think about elements typical of each author's style­forms, names, social class, usual plot dilemmas, etc. You might want to jot down a list of such typical traits before each imitation. Also­be sure to label each piece with the name of the author being imitated. Each imitation need be only three to four paragraphs long, but they should be well-considered ones.

Good parody can show an understanding of typical traits being parodied, so don't be afraid to belabor your points a little. *

2. In this second part of this assignment, analyze what these parodies reveal about the "politics of seduction" in the work of each of these three writers. What is the role of the woman in this scenario? What is the role of the man? What factors initiate this conflict and/or "seduction"? (These factors may be political, economical, ideological, even structural.) How is the conflict and/or "seduction" resolved and what are the implications (both literary and ideological) of this resolution? How does the style in which the scene is written contribute to its message?

You may use any of your notes from class and/ or class handouts to help you answer these questions, but be sure to document your sources. Please note that an "A" paper is one which not only shows a familiarity with the points we have raised in class, but which also provides an analysis that builds upon and further complicates and/or clarifies these points.

Also note that the grade for this exam will be based not only on the accuracy or insight of your answers, but also on the organization of your ideas, the clarity of your expression, and the development of your ideas. In other words, think of this exam as having the form of an essay.

Due date: March 14

* This section of the exam is adapted from an assignment given by Robin Imboden (Associate Professor, Wittenberg University) in her Eighteenth-Century British Novel class.

Final Exam

Please respond to the following two assignments:

Part I: (60 % of the grade)

Choose three passages and/ or texts from the following five and discuss in full their significance in respect to the themes and issues raised in class. In your discussion, I am looking both for a close reading of the passage/text and for a general understanding of the issues which frame its meaning. (In other words, in the second part of your answer, you are telling me why I have chosen this passage/text as representative.) Please remember that an "A" answer will be carefully thought-out, well-argued and organized. It will also build upon rather than merely recapitulate the discussion in class.

The passages and/or texts are:

• from A Sentimental Journey ("The Pulse," " The Husband," and "The Gloves"­pp. 73-78)
• "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
• from The Task (pp. 594-595 in 18th-Century Verse)
• from Maria­Chapter II (pp.14-23)
• from Victim of Prejudice­Chapter III (pp. 11-19)

Each discussion should be two to three pages in length.

Part II: (40% of the grade)

If you were to teach these same texts and this same general topic, how would you present the course to your students? What title would you give it? What do you think are the principal ideas and themes and how would you connect these various texts?

Write a course description that you think would make your course seem interesting, insightful, and coherent. (The challenge of designing any course!)

The description should be approximately three pages long.

Selected Bibliography

Armstrong, Nancy. Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Ballaster, Ros. Seductive Forms: Women's Amatory Fiction from 1684-1740. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.

Castle, Terry. Clarissa's Ciphers. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982.

Doody, Margaret Anne. A Natural Passion: A Study of the Novels of Samuel Richardson. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974.

Eagleton, Terry. The Rape of Clarissa. Oxford: Blackwell University Press, 1982.

Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. trans. Robert Hurley. New York: Pantheon, 1978.

Gallagher, Catherine. Nobody's Story: The Vanishing Acts of Women Writers in the Marketplace 1670-1820. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

Hunter, Heidi, ed. Rereading Aphra Behn: History, Theory & Criticism. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1993.

Johnson, Claudia. Equivocal Beings. Politics, Gender, and Sentimentality in the 1790s. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Kahn, Madeleine. Narrative Transvestism: Rhetoric and Gender in the Eighteenth-Century Novel. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991.

Kelly, Gary. Women, Writing, and Revolution 1790-1827. Oxford: Clarendon University Press, 1993.

Keymer, Tom. Richardson's Clarissa and the Eighteenth-Century Reader. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Lovell, Terry. Consuming Fiction. London: Verso Press, 1987.

McKeon, Michael. The Origins of the English Novel 1600-1740. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1987.

Pollak, Ellen. The Poetics of Sexual Myth: Gender and Ideology in the Verse of Swift and Pope. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.

Richetti, John. Popular Fiction before Richardson: Narrative Patterns 1700-1739. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.

Schofield, Mary Anne, and Cecilia Macheski, eds. Fetter'd or Free? British Women Novelists 1660-1815. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1986.

Spacks, Patricia Meyer. Desire and Truth: Functions of Plot in Elighteenth-Century England. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

Spencer, Jane. The Rise of the Woman Novelist: From Aphra Behn to Jane Austen. Oxford: Blackwell, 1986.

Stone, Lawrence. The Family, Sex and Marriage 1500-1800. Neww York: Harper & Row, 1977.

Todd, Janet. ed. Aphra Behn Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

_____. Sensibility: An Introduction. London: Methuen, 1986.

_____. The Sign of Angelica: Women, Writing, and Fiction 1660-1800. London: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Williamson, Marilyn. Raising their Voices: British Women Writers 1650-1750. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1990.