Copyright by Rachel Marie Schneider 2014 The Dissertation Committee for Rachel Marie Schneider certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Some Versions of the Fragment, 1700-1800 Committee: Lance Bertelsen, Co-Supervisor Matt Cohen, Co-Supervisor Lisa L. Moore Samuel Baker Karen Pagani Some Versions of the Fragment, 1700-1800 by Rachel Marie Schneider, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2014 “Generally, incomplete or verbless sentences of the acceptable type are not classified as ‘fragments,’ but technically they are precisely that. Thus, it is possible, in good usage, to write fragments. Possible but difficult.” —Bryan Garner, A Dictionary of Modern American Usage (1998) iv Acknowledgements I must first thank my co-directors, Lance Bertelsen and Matt Cohen, for their unflagging support. Lance Bertelsen entered my project at a critical moment and offered me support and guidance to articulate my inquiry; without this, I would have never completed this fragment dissertation. His always insightful and substantial comments on my work—alongside his scholarly example—have been a model of mentorship. Matt Cohen provided the right balance of emotional support and intellectual challenge to help me emerge as a scholar. He has been extremely generous with his time and energy, not only telling me what my project was doing when I couldn’t see it, but pushing me to develop critical frameworks of my own. Together, Lance and Matt have been the perfect advisors. I couldn’t ask for better. Lisa Moore has encouraged me from my earliest graduate school days. My experiences in her Transatlantic Feminism and the Age of Revolution course were critical to my intellectual development, and her later support, encouragement, and wisdom continue to help my progress both as a scholar and as a person. I appreciate her standing behind me, whether it’s involved writing recommendation letters or serving me tea and sympathy. I also must thank Sam Baker and Karen Pagani for their work as committee members, who now probably know too much about eighteenth-century fragments. Sam Baker has also long been an intellectual catalyst for me, generously listening to my ideas and suggesting new avenues to wander. Rob Mitchell and Janine Barchas read the prospectus and provided valuable feedback—Janine Barchas in particular urged me to think of the fragment as a genre. Beth Hedrick set my project’s path with her early advice to read all the fragments, which changed its scope entirely. v My research was possibly only with the financial assistance of the Houghton Library, the William Andrews Clark Library, the Bodleian Library and the Centre for the Study of the Book, the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, and the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. The many librarians and scholars at these institutions and others helped me navigate the archives and provided much needed advice and companionship: at the Bodleian, Alexandra Franklin; at the Clark, Jennifer Bastian, Scott Jacobs, Becky Fenning Marschall, and Becky Ruud; at the Harry Ransom Center, Molly Schwartzburg and Pat Fox; at the Houghton, Peter Accardo, Rachel Howarth, and John Overholt; and at the Huntington, Gayle Richardson and Stephen Tabor. I’ve benefited from numerous supportive colleagues in eighteenth-century studies at UT and abroad. At UT, Kevin Bourque, Molly O’Hagan Hardy, Dustin Stewart, and David Harper have been stalwart and supportive mentors as well as witty and wonderful friends. While I am especially grateful to Kevin for introducing me to the colon, Kevin, Dustin, and Molly have all read parts of my work and their feedback has been deeply appreciated. Outside of UT, Cynthia Wall, J. Paul Hunter, George Justice, Devoney Looser, and Emily Friedman welcomed me to the field and from early on have treated me kindly. Adam Rounce and Louise Curran have provided a home away from home, whether in Oxford or at ASECS. Conversations with Paula Backscheider, Jonathan Kramnick, Ashley Marshall, Megan Lea Peiser, Alexander Régier, and Carrie Shanafelt provided encouragement that I had something worth saying. My Austin community has sustained me in so many ways. Hala Herbly and Stephanie Odom provided needed humor and emotional support. Trish Roberts-Miller and her writing group—including Connie Steel, Marjorie Foley, Tekla Hawkins, Megan Eatman, and Nicole Gray—helped me conceive of my project for scholarly audiences beyond my immediate purview. Their friendship, along with that of Meghan Andrews, Emily Bloom, Cate Blouke, vi Lauren Gantz, Brianna Hyslop, Jessica Kilgore, Scott Nelson, Sarah Orem, Thomas Spitzer- Hanks, Laura Thain, Meg Vail, and Rachel Wise, among others, has made Austin a cherished home for me. I’ve valued the support of distant friends, too: Josh West, Anna Striker, Chris Riedel, Liz White, Charlotte Christensen, Joel Nasman, Helen Goodman, and Laura Hough. Bennu Coffee provided needed workspace, stimulating beverages, and excellent baristas that kept me going through the daily grind of writing. I’m also thankful to the many faculty here at UT, particularly Elizabeth Cullingford, Wayne Lesser, Mark Longaker, Coleman Hutchison, Daniel Birkholtz, and Michael Winship, who have given me feedback and support for my work. My list here is certainly incomplete, but I encourage you, if you read this, to include yourself. I only hope I can do you all proud. Finally, I must thank my family for their love and patience: Joan, Tom, Carol, Heather, Jen, Taffy, David, Nolan, and James. I’m also grateful to John Bradley for sitting with me in coffee shops, helping me break down writing tasks into manageable goals, and giving me the confidence, love, and support to finish this fragment dissertation. vii Some Versions of the Fragment, 1700-1800 Rachel Marie Schneider, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2014 Supervisors: Lance Bertelsen and Matt Cohen Some Versions of the Fragment, 1700-1800 examines the eighteenth-century literary print fragment archive to redefine the fragment as a genre typified by its materiality. Eighteenth- century fragments included not just sentimental poems, but novels, satires, and political pamphlets. They are both long and short; written by famous and anonymous authors; canonical and unknown. This dissertation, in recuperating the eighteenth-century fragment’s rich variety, offers a taxonomy that includes three versions of the fragment: the unintentional, the intentional, and the complete. Examining the fragment in this way not only provides categories that can help us better understand how fragments fit within various social and cultural conditions in the eighteenth century, but also how these ways of understanding the fragment can help critics account for its evolutions today. Previous analyses of the literary fragment have emphasized its metaphorical qualities and its formal dimensions. This dissertation argues that the genre is defined no less by its materiality: prefaces, punctuation, and page arrangements are the common constitutive elements shared by all three versions of the fragment. By paying attention to the eighteenth-century fragment’s materiality, critics today can better account for the fragment’s role in the period’s generic developments, as well as its evolving literary marketplace. viii Table of Contents List of Figures ........................................................................................................................ xi Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 Eighteenth-Century Dictionary Definitions of the Fragment ............................... 7 Literary-Critical Definitions of the Fragment ........................................................ 11 Archival Descriptions of the Fragment .................................................................. 18 Chapter Descriptions ................................................................................................ 20 Chapter One: Critical Contexts for Fragment Writing ................................................... 24 Rhetorical Fragments ................................................................................................ 24 Punctuating Fragmentation ...................................................................................... 37 Fragment Aesthetics .................................................................................................. 43 Cognition and the Fragment .................................................................................... 54 Antiquarians and Fragments .................................................................................... 57 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 65 Chapter Two: Unintentional Fallacies, Unintentional Fragments ................................ 66 The Unintentional Fragment: An Overview .......................................................... 71 “I on my Journey all alone proceed”: Churchill’s Journey ..................................... 75 The Case for Developing Authorship: Wollstonecraft, Beattie, and Carter ... 102 Chapter Three: Intentional Fragments............................................................................ 119 The Intentional