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UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Viva Voce: Speech and Orality in Eighteenth-Century Literature Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2xb4p89p Author Walle, Taylor Fontaine Publication Date 2016 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Viva Voce: Speech and Orality in Eighteenth-Century Literature A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English by Taylor Fontaine Walle 2016 © Copyright by Taylor Fontaine Walle 2016 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Viva Voce: Speech and Orality in Eighteenth-Century Literature by Taylor Fontaine Walle Doctor of Philosophy in English University of California, Los Angeles, 2016 Professor Felicity A. Nussbaum, Chair This dissertation traces an alternative history of an understudied and often-maligned eighteenth-century genre: speech. Conventional narratives of the eighteenth century have tended to emphasize the increasing dominance of print, but my project recovers an active interest and confidence in spoken language. Despite a perception in the period that speech was transient, mutable, and vulnerable to corruption, I show that, paradoxically, eighteenth-century authors consistently turn to speech— both as a formal device and a conceptual trope—in order to legitimize their writing. Biographer and compulsive journal-writer James Boswell pursues self-knowledge through transcribed conversation; letter-writing lovers (Swift and Stella, Sterne and Eliza, Thrale Piozzi and Conway) establish intimacy through the trope of the “talking” letter; and female grammarians and lexicographers assert linguistic authority through their mastery of spoken language. These examples demonstrate that questions about the value of speech were at the crux of many pivotal ii eighteenth-century debates, including where to locate the authentic self, how best to standardize the English language, and what kinds of knowledge should matter or “count.” Moreover, these examples point to the role of speech in shaping four quintessential genres of the Enlightenment: the journal, the biography, the letter, and the dictionary or grammar. In looking at how spoken language influences writing, my work makes clear that the eighteenth-century debate about speech sets up a false dichotomy between these two categories; in fact, speech and writing are far more intimately connected than modern critics have allowed. iii The dissertation of Taylor Fontaine Walle is approved. Helen E. Deutsch Christopher J. Looby Olivia Ashley Bloechl Felicity A. Nussbaum, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2016 iv To Matthew Loar, with love. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction A Taste for Speech: The Prominence of Orality in the Eighteenth Century 1 Chapter One Unlicensed Authority: A Rival Tradition of English Grammar and Lexicography 18 Chapter Two Boswell’s Auricular Confessions: Constituting the Eighteenth-Century Self through Speech 75 Chapter Three Textual Intimacy and the Trope of the Talking Letter 122 Chapter Four “All a dream”: James Boswell, Oral Tradition, and the Ossian Question 177 Epilogue Conversation in the Age of the iPhone 220 Appendix Letters from Hester Lynch Piozzi to William Augustus Conway 223 Works Cited 224 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Thomas Sheridan, an entry from A General Dictionary of the English Dictionary (London, 1780). 33 Figure 2. Samuel Johnson, an entry from A Dictionary of the English Language (London, 1755). 33 Figure 3. Elizabeth Elstob, first page of The Rudiments of English Grammar (London, 1715). 54 Figure 4. Ellenor Fenn, sample page from Spelling Book (London, 1787). 70 Figure 5. Hester Lynch Piozzi, annotated page from Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey Through France, Italy, and Germany (1789). 165 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is indebted to a wide community of scholars and friends who supported me throughout the writing process. Chapter One, “Unlicensed Authority,” is largely the product of a fellowship in November 2014 at the Chawton House Library, where I conducted research for the entire second half of the chapter. Moreover, my tenure at Chawton gave me the time and space to develop the argument of this chapter, which became foundational to my dissertation at large. My gratitude to director Gillian Dow and librarian Darren Bevin for making this wonderful space and collection available to me. Chapter One also benefitted from presentation at the Southern California Book History Consortium in May 2015; many thanks to Samantha Sommers and Benjamin Beck for inviting me to present. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to present sections of Chapter Two, “Auricular Confessions,” at two conferences: the Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies in March 2011 and the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies in March 2014. This chapter was also improved by a visit to the Beinecke Library in September 2012, where I not only consulted the Boswell papers but also met Gordon Turnbull, whose mentorship has been a boon to me throughout the dissertation writing process. I am especially grateful to the members of the Stanford University Classics Department’s “Literate Orality and Oral Literacy Workshop,” who invited me to present a paper that became the basis of my fourth chapter, “All a Dream.” Many thanks, too, to Joseph Nagy, who has provided invaluable guidance on all things Ossian. In February and March 2016, I was able to expand and complete Chapter Four thanks to a fellowship at the Huntington Library, where I consulted the library’s holdings in Hester Lynch Piozzi’s work. viii I count myself particularly lucky to have been a student of the UCLA English faculty, whose expert direction facilitated this dissertation from beginning to end. My deepest thanks go to the incomparable Felicity Nussbaum, whose tireless commitment and unfailing high standards always kept me on my toes, propelling me forward even in times of fatigue. She is an absolute marvel, and I am truly grateful for all her time, energy, and insight. Additionally, many, many thanks to Helen Deutsch, whose theoretical acumen and intellectual virtuosity guided this project from its inception. Chris Looby provided crucial perspective on orality in America (and inspired with his dapper style). Sarah Kareem gave advice, offered encouragement, and even proofread at various stages, all while modeling how to be a dynamic young scholar and professor. Thank you, also, to Olivia Bloechl, who not only agreed to be my outside reader and but also generously invited me into her classroom in order to think about speech and sound from the perspective of musicology. In closing, I would like to thank my family and friends, especially Katie Charles, Angelina Del Balzo, Cristina Richieri Griffin, Cailey Hall, Claire Kim, Sydney Miller, Cassia Roth, and Devon Van Dyne. Without their intelligence, feedback, and camaraderie this dissertation might have languished unfinished. Thank you, as well, to my wonderful parents, Maury Callahan and Christopher Walle, and my beloved sister, Elizabeth Walle. Finally, to Matthew Loar, whose partnership has sustained me throughout this program and beyond, my eternal love and gratitude. ix VITA Education M.A., English, University of California, Los Angeles, 2012 M.St., Women’s Studies, University of Oxford, Kellogg College, 2009 B.A., English, with honors, summa cum laude, Washington and Lee University, 2007 Publication “‘These Gentlemens Ill Treatment of our Mother Tongue’: Female Grammarians and the Promotion of the Vernacular,” forthcoming in Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature “‘He looked quite red’: Persuasion and Austen’s New Man of Feeling,” forthcoming in Eighteenth-Century Fiction Selected Conference Papers and Presentations “Boswell on the Linguistic Fringe: Orality and A Dictionary of the Scots Language,” American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, March 2016 “James Boswell and the Ossian Question,” Stanford University Classics Department’s “Literate Orality and Oral Literacy Workshop,” December 2014 “Hearing Confession: the Privileged Status of Orality in James Boswell’s Journalistic Practice,” American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Annual Conference, Williamsburg, VA, March 2014 Selected Awards and Fellowships Huntington Library Fellowship (W. M. Keck Foundation Fellow), February and March 2016 Graduate Division Dissertation Year Fellowship, UCLA, 2015–2016 English Department Dissertation Research Fellowship, UCLA, 2014–2015 Chawton House Library Fellowship, November 2014 x Introduction A Taste for Speech: The Prominence of Orality in Eighteenth-Century Britian In A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775) Samuel Johnson writes that “diction, merely vocal, is always in its childhood.”1 Reflecting on the status of oral tradition in the Highlands, Johnson derides speech as imprecise, inchoate, and easily corruptible. This hierarchy of language—with writing reflecting the pinnacle of civilization and speech our savage origins—is evident not only in Johnson’s work but also throughout much eighteenth-century writing. Anxious to appear civilized, eighteenth-century authors tend to emphasize the sophistication of Britain’s literature at the expense of its oral cultures, and until recently scholars have taken them at their word. This dissertation, however, traces an alternative—and yet, I argue, equally prominent—narrative
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