Resisting writers : four eighteenth-century female novelists in search of a literary voice

Based on assumptions that people are born into language and that subjectivity is culturally constructed, this dissertation discusses novels by four women writers in the eighteenth century—two widowed, two separated from their husbands—who were forced to support themselves by writing patriarchy failed them. Using a psychoanalytic theory of reading, the study reveals how each woman's work amounts to a critique of patriarchy and an attempt to reconstruct female subjectivity in order to counter patriarchal ideology.

Chapter One explains the methods used to analyze the novels, essentially a Ijacanian theory of language and gender. In addition, the chapter summarizes the position of middle-class females in eighteenth century society.

Chapter Two discusses three novels by Penelope Aubin, The Strange Adventures of Count de Vinevil and His Family (1721), The Life of Madam de Beaijnount. A French Lady (1721), and The Life and Adventures of the Lady Lucy (1726). Aubin's insistently reiterated images emphasize the precarious plight of the female in a male-daninated world and suggest that death may be preferable to being trapped in a woman's body.

Chapter Three analyzes Familiar Letters Betwixt a Gentleman and a Lady (1725), The Reform'd Coquet (1724), and The Accomplished Rake (1727) by Mary Davys. Davy's plots and characterizations interrogate accepted courtship practices and manipulate courtly romance conventions in order to negotiate a more honest relationship between man and woman.

Chapter Four examines Charlotte Lennox's (1752), Henrietta (1758), and Sophia (1762). Lennox's mock-heroic treatment of courtly romance exposes deceptive fictitious images of woman. Lennox's novels repeatedly demonstrate that "feminine" discourse inevitably submits to "masculine" discourse and argue for a new discourse for men and women.

Chapter Five focuses on Charlotte Smith's Emmeline; The Orphan of the Castle (1788), Desmond: A Novel (1792), The Old Manor House (1793), and The Young Philosopher (1798). Depicting failed marriages and the destructive effects of depriving ambitious and capable women of power, the novels suggest that a revolution in behavior is required for both men and women.

Chapter Six concludes that traces of these four writers' resistance against male form remain.