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INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Z e e b Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 THE FEMINIZATION OF WIT: SATIRE BY BRITISH WOMEN WRITERS, 1660-1800 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Carol M. Pohli, B.A., M.A., M.A. r k J c ★ ★ it The Ohio State University 1994 Dissertation Committee: Approved by John F. Sena Barbara H. Rigney Adviser Frank Donoghue Department of Engl UMI Number: 9517067 UMI Microform 9517067 Copyright 1995, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project's contribution to my intellectual growth owes much to the members of my dissertation advisory committee. John F. Sena, my Director, is a gentleman whose patience, unfailing gift for encour agement, and wisely chosen questions were an invaluable resource. His trust in my strengths freed me to make mistakes that I now respect, as well as smile at. Barbara Rigney's persistent belief in my work sup ported me during periods of indecision concerning its focus and struc ture. Her quickness to understand my feminist perspective of women's literary work compensated generously for portions of my chapter drafts that were less than models of clarity. Frank Donoghue helped expand my knowledge of the eighteenth-century by giving me Research Assistant- ships, and he offered astute advice that regularly helped me discover informational gaps and organizational options for each chapter. His interest in women's writing and in my approach to satire were crucial supports. I am truly fortunate in having had three advisers who embody the ideals of scholarship, professional courtesy, and dedication to teaching that I admire and hope to achieve. I owe thanks also to those who encouraged me during the early years of my graduate study at Rutgers University: to Catharine R. Stimpson for her kind mentoring and her exemplary zeal for women's writing; and to Janet Todd, who introduced me to women writers i i of the eighteenth-century and whose scholarship continues to teach me. My decision to return to graduate school was influenced by the poems, journals, and novels of May Sarton. Her work, the always expand ing canon of literatu re produced by women, and the achievements of femi nist scholars and activists continue to fortify my belief in the pos s ib ility of a world where women and men admire one another's differences and where the uniqueness of female creativity is cherished. As well, I owe thanks that cannot be expressed adequately to my family and to my friends. One of my deep satisfactions is knowing that those who share my life also share my fulfillments. June 21, 1942 Paterson, New Jersey ..................................... M.A., British Literature Rutgers University New Brunswick, New Jersey ..................................... M.A., English Education Montclair State College Upper Montclair, New Jersey ..................................... B.A., History and English Montclair State College Upper Montclair, New Jersey Research A ssistant: Professor Frank Donoghue Ohio State University Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography of Critical Works dealing with Frances Burney Investigation of Authorial Personae in Prefaces and Epilogues of Novels and Plays by Eighteenth-Century Women Writers Investigation of Patterns of Authority in Eighteenth-Century Literary Journal Editorial Policies Teaching Assistant Department of English, Ohio State University Advanced Expository Writing Introduction to Fiction Introduction to Poetry Composition and Literature Selected Masterpieces of British Literature Teaching Assistant Department of Humanities & Communication Cook College at Rutgers University Expository Writing, Library Research Visiting Part-Time Lecturer Department of English Rutgers College at Rutgers University The English Romantics 1975-80......................................Adjunct Instructor Department of English Bergen Community College/Paramus, New Jersey Compos ition Survey of World Literature PUBLICATIONS 1992............................"Saving the Audience: Reader Response to May Sarton's Work." "That Great Sanity": Critical Essays on May Sarton. Eds. Marilyn R. Mumford and Susan Swartzlander. Ann Arbor: Michigan UP, 1992. 1991............................"Containment of Anger in the Medieval Poem Patience." English Language Notes 29 (September 1991): 1-14. 1991............................"Formal and Informal Space in Dryden's Ode, To the Memory of the Pious...Anne K i l l i g r e w Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture 1660-1700. 15 (Spring 1991): 27-40. 1985............................"The Point Hhere Sense and Dulness Meet: What Pope Knows about Knowing and about Women." Eighteenth Century Studies. 19 (Winter, 1985-86): 206-234. 1983............................"Church Closets and Back Doors: A Feminist View of Moral Majority Women." Feminist Studies. 9 (Fall, 1983): 529-558. FIELDS OF STUDY English V TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................................................................................................................... ii VITA............................................................................................................................................ iv INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER PAGE I. TRADITIONAL AND NON-TRADITIONAL VIEWS OF EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH SATIRE.............................................................................................. 10 Introduction ....................................................................................... 10 Discriminatory Uses of Wit...................................................... 16 Women's Troubled Relation to Wit ......................................... 27 A Different View of W it ........................................................... 32 Can Wit Be Evaluated Ahistorically? ............................... 37 Satire as a Polymorphous Literary Mode........................... 41 N o te s ..................................................................................................... 46 II. REVISIONARY ACTS: SUSANNAH CENTLIVRE'S The Busy Body. 55 Introduction ....................................................................................... 55 St. James Park - Miranda's Escape from the 'Law' that Women Should be Seen and Not H eard ...................... 63 The "Dumb Show”: Miranda's Mastery of Desire .... 79 The Monkey Scene: Exposures of Miranda's Desires . 86 Miranda's Relinquishment of Her Role as Satirist. 96 N o te s ........................................................................................................104 III. SUBJECTIVITY IN WOMEN'S SATIRIC POEMS.......................................113 Introduction ..........................................................................................113 Poetic Refusals of Oppositional Limits to Feminine Subjectivity ..........................................................................................122 Women's Poetic Resistances to Being Excluded from Power...............................................................................................137 Simultaneous Meanings: S atire's Polymorphous Subjectivities ......................................................................................150 N o te s ........................................................................................................167 vi CHAPTER PAGE IV. EMBODIMENTS OF DESIRE: SEMIOTIC PATTERNS IN CHARLOTTE LENNOX'S NOVEL, The Female Quixote.........................175 Introduction ..............................................................................................175 Romance as a Rejected and Persistent Narrative Form 177 The Dangers of Femaleness in Romance .......................................184 The Female Quixote's Importance ............................................. 187 Confused Genres: Arabella's View