University of Southampton Research Repository
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
University of Southampton Research Repository University of Southampton Research Repository Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis and, where applicable, any accompanying data are Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis and, where applicable, any accompanying data are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis and the non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis and the accompanying data cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining accompanying data cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content of the thesis and accompanying permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content of the thesis and accompanying research data (where applicable) must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any research data (where applicable) must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder/s. format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder/s. When referring to this thesis and any accompanying data, full bibliographic details must be given, When referring to this thesis and any accompanying data, full bibliographic details must be given, e.g. e.g. Thesis: Author (Year of Submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the Thesis: Author (Year of Submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University Faculty or School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. University Faculty or School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF HUMANITIES English Fashioning Female Authorship in the Early Nineteenth Century: A Study of the Epistolary Friendship and Tractarian Fiction of Two Women from the Hampshire Gentry, 1827–1842 by Janet Davidson Carter Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2017 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES English Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy FASHIONING FEMALE AUTHORSHIP IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY: A STUDY OF THE EPISTOLARY FRIENDSHIP AND TRACTARIAN FICTION OF TWO WOMEN FROM THE HAMPSHIRE GENTRY, 1827–1842 Janet Davidson Carter To date no major research has been undertaken on the correspondence of Anne Sturges Bourne and Marianne Dyson (1822-1871) located in the Hampshire Record Office. This valuable collection of letters not only offers a wealth of information about the letter-writing practices of women from the landed gentry, it also provides the opportunity to examine the letter as a cultural and historical artefact. By using Marilyn Friedman’s theories on women’s friendships and relational autonomy, this thesis has been able to combine the methodology required for studying letters as a genre with the concept of the letter as a purveyor of social and cultural experiences. This has resulted in an interdisciplinary study which has analysed the important role that letter writing played in the development of Anne and Marianne’s friendship, while, at the same time, demonstrating their intellectual engagement with the prevalent literary, religious, and philosophical discourses of the day. As a process which encouraged reflection, letter writing enabled these two women to develop a gendered subjectivity and to achieve degrees of personal autonomy in a social context. I argue that the supportive nature of their epistolary friendship empowered them to embrace life as single women and to pursue their shared ideals for the future, which, for them, meant a life spent in service to the Church and educating the poor. It also provided them with a route into authorship through their collaborative literary endeavours in support of the Anglo-Catholic doctrine of the Oxford Movement, or Tractarianism as it was later called. In the 1850s and 60s Anne and Marianne used the collaborative model of authorship they had developed for writing and publishing their own juvenile tales to support the novel writing of the major Victorian novelist, Charlotte Mary Yonge. While Yonge’s habit of discussing her novels with friends and family is known from Christabel Coleridge’s biography (1903), the empirical evidence found in the Sturges Bourne/Dyson correspondence provides a more nuanced account of the way in which literary collaboration could function. It also corroborates recent scholarly claims that female collaborative authorship was more commonplace in the nineteenth century than has hitherto been recognised. More significantly, the stories written by Anne, and Marianne in particular, were recognised in contemporary Tractarian circles as important contributions to the establishment of Anglo-Catholic doctrine for future generations. This marks Anne Sturges Bourne and Marianne Dyson out as part of a forgotten generation of women writers who paved the way, not only for Yonge, but for other known women writers of Tractarian fiction in the second half of the nineteenth century, such as Elizabeth Missing Sewell and Felicia Skene. Table of contents Table of Contents ................................................................................................................... i List of Accompanying Materials ............................................................................................. v DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP ........................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. ix Definitions and Abbreviations .............................................................................................. xi Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 I: Recovering a history of women’s friendships and literary collaborations ................................ 4 II: The gendered traditions of the landed gentry ...................................................................... 13 III: Liberal theology and Enlightenment traditions .................................................................... 17 IV: The transformative power of friendship .............................................................................. 23 Chapter 1: Letter Writing and the Development of a Gendered Subjectivity .......................... 27 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 27 Madame de Sévigné and the Polite Art of Letter writing ........................................................ 33 1.1.1: Constructing the model: patriarchy and the letters of Mme de Sévigné ........................ 33 1.1.2: Readdressing the letters of Mme de Sévigné .................................................................. 39 1.1.3: Imitating Sévigné: a display of polite letter writing skills ................................................ 44 1.1.4: Learning to write a beautiful letter ................................................................................. 47 Reinforcing Gender Distinctions in the Country House ....................................................... 53 1.2.1: The mirror of mother and daughter ................................................................................ 53 1.2.2: Perpetuating the orthodox texts of the landed gentry ................................................... 56 1.2.3: Eliciting parental approval .............................................................................................. 59 1.2.4: Women and the ambiguity of politics ............................................................................. 61 Finding a Voice of their Own ............................................................................................. 67 1.3.1: Intersubjectivity and the importance of the regular letter exchange ............................. 67 1.3.2: Schiller, Coleridge, and an idealized vision of humanity ................................................. 70 1.3.3: Defining a sense of self in the context of Schiller’s ideals ............................................... 73 1.3.4: The Christian Year: a matter of taste? ............................................................................. 76 1.3.5: German literature, Coleridge, and intellectual sophistication ........................................ 79 Chapter 2: ‘Friendship’ and ‘Employment’: The Sustaining Ideals in Life ................................ 85 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 85 i The Stability of Female Friendship ..................................................................................... 91 2.1.1: The nature of female amity ............................................................................................. 91 2.1.2: ‘Ideale’ and a concept of God in nature .......................................................................... 97 2.1.3: Fashioning a virtuous ideal for women’s friendship ........................................................ 99 2.1.4: Building the ‘fabrick’ of eternity ...................................................................................