City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2015 A Man to Preserve or Reform the Nation: Masculinity as Political Rhetoric in English Novels during the Revolution Controversy Janne Burger Gillespie Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/942 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] A MAN TO PRESERVE OR REFORM THE NATION: MASCULINITY AS POLITICAL RHETORIC IN ENGLISH NOVELS DURING THE REVOLUTION CONTROVERSY by Janne Burger Gillespie A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2015 ii © 2015 Janne Burger Gillespie All rights reserved iii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in English to satisfy the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 20 May, 2015 David H. Richter Date Chair of Examining Committee 20 May, 2015 Mario DiGangi Date Executive Officer David Richter Rachel Brownstein Alan Vardy Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iv Abstract A Man to Preserve or Reform the Nation: Masculinity as Political Rhetoric in English Novels during the Revolution Controversy by Janne Burger Gillespie Director: David H. Richter The English literary responses to the French Revolution have been given thorough critical attention as has the Revolution’s impact on women writers and femininity. However, the Revolution’s impact on and engagement with standards of manliness have been left relatively unexplored. This dissertation examines how a critique of masculinity is positioned in the space of contemporary political considerations in the quarter-century following the French Revolution. Thus, this dissertation argues that there is a dialectical engagement between masculinity and political views in late eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century English novels such as Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda and Leonora, Charlotte Smith’s Emmeline and Desmond, Frances Burney’s Camilla, Elizabeth Jervis’ Agatha, and Jane Austen’s Emma. The way these novels construct and interrogate masculinity, aristocratic and otherwise, must be read in reference to not only eighteenth and nineteenth-century discourses on hegemonic masculinities, such as politeness, sensibility, gentlemanliness, and manliness, but also in reference to the discursive atmosphere of the revolutionary ideas and their conservative counterparts. It is my contention that novelists writing in the wake of the French Revolution made conscious use of tropes of and existing discourses on masculinity to v construct their political arguments, and, therefore, reading these novels with an eye towards depictions of masculinity can help us better understand the politics of novels written during the Revolution Controversy, 1789-1815. vi Acknowledgements My first heartfelt gratitude goes to my advisor, David Richter, whose guidance and support, not only during the dissertation writing stage but throughout my graduate career, has been essential to my completing this dissertation. His willingness and ability to offer critical insight and constructive comments while giving me the freedom to explore my ideas allowed this project to blossom. Going back to my days as an M.A. student at Queens College, when he encouraged my ambition to continue my graduate studies, he has taught me so much about our field, and I am immensely grateful to have had such a dedicated advisor and mentor. I also want to extend a special thank you to my readers, Rachel Brownstein and Alan Vardy, for their time, insightful suggestions, and perceptive readings. Every question and concern they raised along the way strengthened my work. I could not have asked for a better committee. I owe my deepest gratefulness to my mother, Else Marie Burger, to whose memory I dedicate this dissertation. She always encouraged me to read and to get the post-secondary education she never did. It is my deepest regret that she is no longer here to celebrate this very special occasion with me, and I know she would have been immensely proud of me. I am also extremely thankful to my maternal grandparents, “Mor” and “Far,” who have always been there for me with their encouragement and love. My awesome mother-in-law, Sherry Gillespie, has been a great source of inspiration, as well, since she has not only cheered me on, but has shown me that it is indeed possible to successfully combine getting a Ph.D. with family life. I could not have completed this body of work without the unwavering love, friendship, and support from my husband, Neil. He has been a wonderful and caring partner to me during every step of this process. Finally, I would like to thank my daughter, Annika, who constantly vii inspires me with her intellectual curiosity and who is the sunshine of my life. Annika and Neil, I love you to the end of the universe and back! viii Table of Contents Chapter 1: Eighteenth-Century Discourses of Masculinity Meet Revolutionary Ideas………………..………..…….. 1 Chapter 2: Charlotte Smith’s Soft Heroes of the Gentry …………………………………………………………..... 28 Chapter 3: Agatha: An Unusual Anti-Jacobin Celebration of Sensibility and “The Man of Feeling” ……………….64 Chapter 4: Blackguards and Buffoons: The Threat of Lower Class Men and Social Mobility in Burney’s Camilla ..97 Chapter 5: Maria Edgeworth and the Effeminizing Power of French Ideas and Manners …………….………..…. 131 Chapter 6: Emma: A New Manliness for the Nineteenth Century …...…………..…...…………………………… 169 Appendix A ...………………………………………………...………………………………….…….. 205 Appendix B ...………………………………………………...………………………………………... 206 Works Cited ...………………………………………………...………………….……………………. 207 1 A Man to Preserve or Reform the Nation: Masculinity as Political Rhetoric in English Novels during the Revolution Controversy “If it be asked – What is the French Revolution to us? - We answer . It is much. – Much to us as Men: Much to us as Englishmen” (Paine, The Political and Miscellaneous Works 58). “Since at least the mid-sixteenth century, both radicals and conservatives of all stripes saw the inculcation of virtues, manners, and manliness as a central form of power” (David Kuchta, The Three Piece Suit 3). Chapter 1: Eighteenth-Century Discourses of Masculinity Meet Revolutionary Ideas I Gender and politics are inextricably intertwined. For instance, contemporary female politicians have to walk a tight-rope between being confident and decisive but not unfeminine often, therefore, focusing on projecting nurturing qualities such as compassion. Accordingly, assertive female politicians like Hillary Rodham Clinton and Britain’s “iron-lady” Margaret Thatcher have been vilified by political foes and rejected by some voters as a result of being seen as overly masculine and for failing to abide by traditional ideas of femininity. This is not a new problem for women in the sphere of politics, and we can see the obvious parallels to the “unsex’d” Mary Wollstonecraft in the 1790s. Wollstonecraft, in her turn, in A Vindication of the Rights of Men chided her political opponent, Burke, himself a master of gendered discourse, for abandoning rational language when describing the plight of Marie Antoinette. Thomas Paine, too, found, Burke’s florid descriptions of the French Queen to be excessive and therefore 2 effeminate, and he, as well as Wollstonecraft, uses gendered terms to undermine Burke’s political argument. Whereas Wollstonecraft ridicules Burke for his “romantic gallantry” (A Vindication of the Rights of Men 54), Paine derides Burke’s “frenzy of passion” (9) and compares his rhetoric, which he describes as “ineffectual, though gay with flowers,” with the “clear, concise, and soul-animating sentiments” and, in Paine’s opinion, clearly more manly style, of the Marquis de la Fayette (18). In this instance, Wollstonecraft, Paine and Burke were all situating themselves in a lively debate, not only about politics, but also about what it meant to be a man. All three build upon hegemonic categories of normative masculinity in order to make their political points, and, accordingly, masculinity becomes a prism through which larger cultural and political issues are seen. The literary responses to the French Revolution have been thoroughly examined, most notably by Gary Kelly and M.O. Grenby, but whereas the Revolution’s impact on women writers and femininity has been explored by critics such as Marilyn Butler, Gary Kelly, Eleanor Ty and Audrey Bilger, the Revolution’s impact on and engagement with standards of manliness have been given less attention. Megan Woodworth argues that the reason for this is that male characters have generally been written off as the products of wishful dreams or mere didactic tools, but I agree with her assertion that “male figures – heroes villains and father-figures alike – are deliberate artistic and ideologically-charged productions with the aim to complicate the way the political and social philosophies and interventions … are regarded” (2). Woodworth, however, concentrates mainly on male characters as functions of female authors’ desires and reactions to patriarchy. This dissertation, therefore, aims to examine how notions of contemporary masculinity is positioned and